Game of Demons
by Brago12716
Summary: While fighting, Hiei winds up in the world of Game of Thrones, injured and came to be cared for the Starks of Winterfell, what happens when the honorable swordsman of demon world meets the Eddard Stark of Winterfell, come and see in this tale of what might happen if you put a demon like Hiei in a world full of corruption, plots, and schemes. GoF beginning of the series, YYH after.
1. Westeros

Game of Demons

Chapter 1

Westeros

You know those stories about witches, wizards, conjurers, or other types of mystical beings like a priestess or devote follower of a god from a religion, bringing forth some great champion to defend and right the wrongs of the world they are summoned to, those type of stories. The one's where the champion defeats the big bad and everyone goes home happy and everyone gets a happy ever after at the end, look back on their time after the adventure only to laugh at what fools they all were to do something stupid years after, this isn't one of those. This is a story that starts in a world so different from where the rest takes place in it's absurd, where one world is full of corruption and schemes and plots, the other one is full of beings holding unimaginable power, a world filled with monsters called demons.

This is the story of how one demon was sent to a new world with no way home, how one demon was so powerful and well known that the very mention of his name struck fear into the hearts of all demons and everyone else that knows of the supernatural world. This demon was known as Hiei, the fire demon born to an ice maiden, the wielder of the dragon of the darkness flame and the jagan eye, the cursed child, the heir to Mukuro and her thrown as the current ruler of demon world, and the one demon that nobody wanted in that other world.

Our story begins in demon world, during a crisis, a crisis was nothing new for them, but this particular crisis was entirely new for them, it required the attention of Mukuro, Yomi, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama in order to confront this new enemy, and what an enemy it was. This new enemy seemed to actually be a giant dragon coated in shadow, not a dark flame, but a shadow, eyes as red as blood and a body as big as the statue of liberty, wings were just as big when fully stretched, and a tail with a trident shape at the end. This dark dragon was powerful enough to give all five of the assembled power houses a very bad beating, mainly because of its ability, it could copy the power of any two demons and combine them, so when they all attacked they were hit with a barrage of combined power attacks. Yusuke's spirit gun with Yomi's demon energy shield, Mukuro's space altering ability with Kurama's plants, Hiei's fire and speed with Yomi's demon energy shield, Yusuke's spirit gun with Kurama's plants, it didn't matter what the combination, it could do it.

"This thing is really pissing me off," Yusuke exclaimed angrily as he tried to stand form a kneeling position, he was battered and bruised all over, and it wasn't just him, the others were also in similar conditions, not a single one of them were without a mark, but all looked like a bloody mess.

"I get the feeling Yusuke, but remain calm and cautious," Kurama advised, he was probably the one in the worst shape, most of his hair was singed off and his clothing was barely considered rags now, blood was pouring out of the gashes on his torso and arms with a hole in his legs.

"You should know by now Kurama that the detective will never be calm or cautious, he'll always win off of his power and luck," Hiei taunted as he stood straight as not to show any signs of weakness, despite the numerous wounds from constant blasts and slashes on his body.

"Knock it off you three," Yomi ordered as he rose from his kneeling position, he looked the best out of all of them thanks to his shield keeping most of the damage from reaching him, "we need to get rid of this thing, anybody have any idea how to do it," he asked while hearing for the beast.

"I have a few suggestions, namely all of us attacking at the same time, we've never been good with teamwork but if we all attack at once we could finish this," Mukuro suggested despite her own pain from having a huge gash in her back and left breast with a hole through her left bicep.

"That idea may be the only option we have at the moment, even if I hate the idea of working with some of you," Yomi said pointedly while staring at Kurama and Yusuke's direction, "but it's worth a shot, Kurama and Mukuro should go for it's legs, Hiei and I the arms, Urameshi the head."

"Now that plan I can get behind," Yusuke cheered and geared up for another round by raising his spirit and demon energy mixture while the others raised their demon energies, they all launched themselves at the large dragon with the full intent to kill it, they just forgot one thing, the tail. Not only the tail though, they also forgot about the wings, so as soon as they were on the massive beast, the tail instantly knocked Kurama and Mukuro away since they were currently the slowest, then came the wings covering his arms before swiping those coming for its arms. This knocked both Yomi and Hiei for a loop while the beast headbutted Yusuke and grabbed hold of the closest person to itself, this being Hiei that it held in its right hand but grabbed him in a way that pinned only his left arm to the side and left his right arm exposed.

This was not looking good at all, even worse was that one of them might be crushed when they saw the beast squeeze Hiei in its hand, that was before they saw something worse about to happen, the draconian beast raised his left clawed hand and coated it in Mukuro's energy. Hiei saw what was about to happen but refused to die without a fight if this was his end, so with a huge output of all the energy he could muster, he summoned his dragon of the darkness flame one last time, he had already used it three times, so this will consume him and hopefully the beast. The dragon wasn't as big as he usually summons, maybe half of that, but it was hopefully enough to at least weaken the beast enough for the others to finish it, but at the same time Hiei launched the attack, the shadow dragon swiped down Mukuro's own space altering energy. This created a powerful shockwave that sprung from the collision of energies, it forced the others to cover their eyes so they didn't see what happened, the explosion from the collision, it tore open part of the beast and made him lose his right arm and wing, but also left Hiei gone. Literally gone, there was no sign of him, no ash, no energy signature, and not even a grain of dust, he was just gone and left no trace he was ever there, no trace except for the dragon that he left howling in pain while the others just stared at what happened in awe, anger, and sadness.

In a few years, it is said that the yell they all unleashed while going into battle with heightened energies was so loud and haunting that the rest of demon and spirit world could hear them, so loud that that it made everyone's ears burst form the sound, even psychics in living could feel it. The sound was their yells and the feel of their energies were so filled with anger and furry, hate and anguish, so massive that the songs that would be sung after such a battle would from then on never be called a yell again, and it was not a shout, the only thing it could be called was a battle cry.

* * *

Westeros

Eddard 'Ned' Stark, lord of Winterfell and warden of the north was returning home with his sons, Robb, Jon Snow, Brandon, his ward Theon Greyjoy, his master of arms Ser Rodrik Cassel, and other men following him on his way back from executing a deserter from the night's watch. Swinging the sword himself just as the old way demands him, then had a talk with his young Brandon about why it had to be him to swing the sword, the way back was a quiet ride after that until they had to stop for a mauled deer in the road, and by the patterns it was a wolf. Just after a bridge, Ned got off his horse and walked past Robb and Jon on one side and Theon on the other Theon thought it could be a mountain lion, but there are none in these woods, but they might yet find the cause since there was a trail leading off to the side and down a ways. There they saw the sight of a dead wolf with an antler from a deer impaling the wolf, with small wolf pups gathering around it, "it's a direwolf, tough old beast," Ned said as he removed the antler from the impaled wolf, it was embedded quite deep inside it.

"There are no direwolves south of the Wall," Robb commented, he was a good boy, a bit naïve when it came to some things, but had the makings of a good leader in him, especially for someone named for his father's best friends and their king, Robert Baratheon.

"Now there are Five," Jon stated as he was kneeled down beside the pups and picked one up, "you want to hold it," he offered it to Bran before not really waiting for an answer and passed the boy one of the pups, the others regretted what will happen as Bran asked where they will go.

"They don't belong down here, better a quick death," Ned regrettably said as he rose, "they won't last without their mother," he made to leave as Theon stepped forward with knife in hand to kill the pup in Brand's arms, but the boy wouldn't let it happen, he must want to keep it.

"Lord Stark, there are five pups, one for each of the Stark children, the direwolf is the sigil of your house, they were meant to have them," Jon, always the peacemaker and most kind hearted of all his children, bastard or no, not really his or no, he's just like his mother in that regard.

Ned seemed to be contemplating it for a moment before he made his decision, "you will train them yourselves, you will feed them yourselves, and if they die, you will bury them yourselves," he turned to leave and barely heard them gathering the wolves or finding one for Jon.

That is when a loud crack of thunder tore through the skies and a flash of light struck behind the group as they turned to leave, Ned turned and saw a boy around five foot tall standing there with slumped shoulders and covered in nothing but black pants, boots, and numerous gashes on his form. He looked like he had just been in a battle so fierce that it could be tale for the ages, and when he looked up they noticed his piercing red eyes, but also a third eye on his forehead, breathing so heavily that you could see his breath, "Jigoku wa watashida to koro," he said in a foreign tongue.

"Easy there, do you speak the common tongue," Ned asked as he stepped forward, this may be some sort of witchcraft, but the boy looked as confused as them on how he got here, well, confused and mad at ending up where it was he here instead of where he was.

For Hiei though, this was not a good thing at all, he was fighting a dark dragon with the others and somehow ended up here, damn that dragon and him copying Mukuro's space altering powers, must have sent him here, to a place where they speak an old type of English not used anymore. 'I really hate English,' Hiei thought to himself before speaking in what they call the common tongue, "I said where the hell am I," he looked and saw just a kid with them, swords on all, but the boy, but they would have to be used to knight-based fighting, how boring.

"You are speaking to Eddard of the house Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, do not speak so casually," one somewhat fat man with a white sideburns or something or other ordered as he grasped his sword as a show of some kind of warning, Hiei didn't care.

"I'm not from these lands you fat oaf or is that to lost on that worthless brain of yours," that seemed to anger the man further, "but at least you answered my question, at least vaguely, I'm in some kind of northern region, close to a settlement called Winterfell, I've never heard of it."

"You truly aren't form these lands than if you've never heard of the North or Winterfell, tell me, what's your name and where are you from," the one called Eddard asked calmly to try and prevent some kind of battle, smart move on his part, probably a pacifist who prefers not to fight.

"Hiei Jaganshi, my home is a place called Makai, though you've more than likely never heard of it," Hiei introduced while taking care to say his first name first since that was how they speak in English, but now his vision was starting to blur, he's used too much energy fighting.

"You're right, we've never heard of a place called Makai before, or a house named Jaganshi, probably from an isolated island somewhere, good news Theon, we might have found some of your kin," a man with brown hair and brown fur commented and earned a 'fuck off' in response.

"It's not an island, just far from here," Hiei was starting to fade out now, he really needed to go into hibernation from overusing his dragon, but he couldn't just pass out in front of strangers, but in the end as they were talking amongst themselves, his body gave out and he fell to the ground.

Ned rushed forward and caught the boy that fell over from his numerous wounds, "help me carry him, we'll take him to Maester Luwin so his injuries can be treated," Robb came to his side and helped carry the boy and helped put him on the back of his own horse before riding home.

It took somewhere between three to five hours to return home, they trudged through the gates of Winterfell and immediately Ned started giving out orders, "Theon, go fetch Maester Luwin, Robb and Jon, take Hiei to an empty room, Bran, go to your mother and tell her what happened." They all did as they were told, Robb and Jon took Hiei to a room close to the top of a tower and laid him down gently on the bed just as the maester came in and looked the boy over, but when he went to check his pulse, he found a very shocking thing.

"I'm sorry my lord, but I'm afraid he is gone," Luwin reported in sadly at not being able to do anything for the boy, the others looked on sadly as well, "do you know the boy's name or what where he's from, I might be able to get word to his family notifying him of their loss."

"He said his name was Hiei of the house Jaganshi, hailing from the land of Makai," Ned informed as he stepped by the boy's bedside, "he claimed he did not know what the North was nor has he heard of Winterfell, which led us to believe that perhaps he's from an isolated island."

"However there are no islands around or anywhere near here named Makai, and yet he showed up just in front of us looking as though he was in a battle meant for the history books with no knowledge of where he was," Theon commented from the back of the group closer to the door.

"There is also the language he spoke when he appeared, I'm not an expert in language but I've never heard mention of a language like that, I've talked to many people who could speak many tongues, but none of them were that of the language he spoke in," Ned stated eyeing the boy.

"There is another problem as well, there is no house named Jaganshi or any known land such as Makai, and these gashes indicate that he was in a battle, not with blades, but with a fierce animal the likes of which I've never seen," Luwin commented as he examined the wounds on the boy.

"Then there is the matter of his extra feature, is there such a way to gain three eyes here in Westeros or is that a foreign possibility," Robb asked making the maester reach up and pull open Hiei's third eye to see a purple pupil staring back at him, he checked the other eyes and saw red.

"I do not believe that the eyes are natural occurrences, both his natural eyes are red, which in of itself is strange, but his third eye is purple in color, and no there is no such procedure here or across the narrow sea where a man should be able to gain a third eye," Luwin informed.

"Let us check the facts, we have a strange boy from a strange land, possibly lied about his name and where he was from, has two natural eyes and one unnatural eye, arrived in the North with no knowledge of it whilst being covered in claw marks, correct," Ned stated as he held his head high.

The others nodded before Lady Catelyn Stark entered the room to see those that were in there and what was lying on the bed, "by the gods Ned, what could have done this to a boy he's just a boy and yet he was cut down like so, and so far away from his home too."

It was at this commented that the others felt the need to tell her their theory, but couldn't for an astonishing event happened, Hiei was done hibernating and shot his eyes opened and sit up, making all of them back away in fear at seeing a boy rise from the dead covered in wounds. "By the gods, you had no heartbeat, how can you possibly be alive," Luwin asked as he backed up to the wall at seeing the boy, the others put their hands on their swords at the prospect of having to fight off a creature rising from the dead, who knows what was going to happen.

Hiei thought this might come up if he passed out in front of them, "demon hearts don't really beat in the same sense as humans do," he commented before wincing a little at feeling his wounds healing, he could feel every stitch and new cell they made, and it wasn't pleasant to experience. He thought he should try and get his mind off of it, "earlier you said we were in the north, and I'm guessing this is Winterfell, so what exactly are we north of, or is this place just called the North of some region," he guessed as he stood up from the bed and touched the hard and cold floor.

"Aye, this is the North, it's a region that belongs to the kingdom of the seven kingdoms of Westeros, now I ask again, what is your real name and the land that you hale from demon, before I order you to be put in chains and sentenced to death," Ned ordered as he held his sword ready.

"First off, I never lied to you about where I'm from or what my name is, you just never asked if where I was from is of this world or not, and second, what crime would I have committed to warrant being put to death, if you can," Hiei asked while barely looking at them turned to the side.

"That would explain why there is no mention of the house Jaganshi in any records, or where this Makai is, probably in some level of the seven hells where this demon comes from, and I'm sure you've committed some act that warrants you being put to death," Luwin commented.

"You may find this hard to believe, but I come from a different… realm altogether, Jaganshi is an epithet meaning 'Master of the Evil Eye', which is the third eye on my forehead, Makai means Demon World in my land's native language," Hiei answered back glaring at the maester.

"Ned," Catelyn called attention to her, "I think we should give him a chance," she offered making them all look at her, "we shouldn't just decide to kill him because of what he is, that would make us no better than the Lannisters in regard to how they treat the imp, just on what he is."

Despite what she said, Hiei could tell there was tension in the room, tension probably stemmed from how she occasionally looks at one of the men in the room, "I'll assume that the tension doesn't exist for the time being, but she has a point, I don't think you should kill for what I am."

There was a silence in the air that would only go away once someone of power spoke, "aye, it is not right to judge you for what you are, and I do not know what you have done to warrant being put to death, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Luwin," Ned called for the maester, "make sure he's cared for and given food as a guest, the rest of you are to tell no one of what we've learned today, as far as everyone is concerned then he is just a foreign ward that we've taken under our care from his injuries, understood."

Everyone else agreed to it obediently, Hiei not so much, "There's no need for that, I'll be fully healed in a day or two, fully recovered in around two weeks after that with how much energy I've lost, after that I'm going and finding a way home myself, understand"

"Aye, I understand that you wish to go home, while you're recovering Maester Luwin will be looking into it," Ned offered and Hiei grunted in acceptance, "Cat, have the Sept bring him a change of clothes, and something hot to eat, I'm sure he's tired and hungry, we'll take out leave." They walked out after that, not wanting to stay with the demon any longer than needed, they might not put him to death for something that he didn't do, but that didn't mean they were going to be too friendly with him, doing this just to do the right thing instead of what was wrong.


	2. A King Lands in Winterfell

Game of Demons

Chapter 2

A King Lands in Winterfell

Hiei had now been in this land for a little over a week, his wounds have all healed and there was no permanent damage present, however he used up far more energy than what he first thought because it took him nearly twice the amount of time to heal he had predicted it to be. Despite this fact, his energy was recovering steadily, so he used his own energy to manually heal his wounds, this was because he had grown impatient, only having one wound to give him such trouble, so he used his own energy out of frustration, making it that much longer for said energy to fully heal.

That problem pales in comparison to what he's been thinking about, in truth he had no desire to go home, it was strange, demons are born with a desire to go to demon world, their home and birthplace, especially if they travel to living world, it seemed to always be as long as it existed. Yet he wasn't desiring to go home, yet he was a demon, so that means his connection with his home is gone, there was no demon world on this plane of existence, nothing close to it, so there must also not be a spirit world of any type either, he was truly alone here. No connection to anything, the only proof he has that he's a demon is his own words and the third eye on his forehead, the dragon on his arm could be used, but that was it, he was the only demon in a sea of humans, this place was normal, no spiritual afterlife of any kind. It was almost freeing not having the feeling that he had to go home to demon world, maybe he just wanted to go out of habit, pretty sad when you just wish to go home out of habit and not because you want to go home, it was almost surreal for him to feel this way but disturbing at the same time.

This new world was strange in of itself though, he was able to do some reading and even overheard some conversations, the winters here were absurdly long, just as the summers were, each lasting years upon years, each one determined how long it will be by the season before it. Then there was the fact that this was essentially just a world from the dark ages, knights and squires, kings and queens, princes and princesses, swords and spears, bows and arrows, furs and silk, ale and wine, and other things that Hiei was used to, only one small difference, it isn't. Over time he's gotten used to being the heir to Mukuro's throne, gotten use to the little things that he realized he didn't have anymore, a functioning toilet for one, another was the forms of transportation, how to contact people, proper doctors, and perhaps some better clothes.

He's currently wearing a variation of what the locals wear, well, when they are standing around all day, mainly an all-black attire with some strange undershirt and a kind of overshirt covering type deal with black pants for the bottoms and black boots, it was quite uncomfortable for him. He would have to sneak into some area and make his own clothes to wear, his own clothes consisting of black pants, black shoes, black sleeveless shirt, and a cloak-like jacket with a white collar, but for now he guessed he should answer the knock that was coming from his door.

He wordlessly opened the door and saw Catelyn Stark standing there with a servant girl to bring in some food, he stepped aside as a wordless invite inside the room, the food was brought in by the servant before she left quickly, "I came to see how you are fairing in the land," Catelyn asked. Hiei didn't really say anything and just stared back at her with a blank expression as he stepped further into the room, "I assume you would be quite disoriented being in this new land, I was actually quite distressed when I first came here from my own home."

"Will you get to the point anytime soon," Hiei asked with a bit of a deadpan, this woman needed to get to the point and not try and get to him through being nice, he's been around that all his life and it always came back to bight him in the ass, sometimes literally.

Catelyn sighed as she sat down on the bed, "we received word that king Robert's hand, Jon Arryn, has died and that the king himself is coming to Winterfell," he just stared at her blankly until she understood why, "my apologies, I forgot that you don't know what is common here. King Robert is the king of the seven kingdoms, he won it by defeating the previous ruler, the mad king, in a rebellion and took the throne for himself, my husband fought alongside him along with Jon Arryn to win the war, resulting in the current standing that is in place now. Jon Arryn is dead, and there is no one else in all of the seven kingdoms that king Robert trusts more now than Ned, and I fear that when the king does come, he's going to ask Ned to become the new hand of the king and take him to King's Landing, but I don't want him to go."

"Why should this matter to me, I'll more than likely be gone by the time this king gets here in search of a way to get to my realm, why should I care about some weak king who probably doesn't deserve his title," Hiei asked harshly, he was starting to lose patience with this woman.

"Because you owe me a debt for convincing my husband to spare your life from beheading and if you do go with my husband to King's Landing, there is a source of knowledge there that could contain what you seek, so you might as well watch over Ned while you're there," she reasoned.

Hiei thought about it, she didn't really spare his life, he could have gotten out of that predicament without her saying anything, yet the opportunity to go to this King's Landing did provide him with a good resource of knowledge that might allow him to find a way to return home. He was in no hurry to go home surprisingly, but that didn't mean that he did not want to return home regardless, but if he couldn't find a way to return home, what was he going to do, he'll have to cross that inevitable bridge when he comes to it, then burn it if needed. "Very well, I'll go to this King's Landing when your husband does and protect him, but not in exchange for a debt you believe I owe you, but because of this information on a possibility of information," he declared simply enough, she nodded as well, "but I refuse to call Robert a king."

"He will not take kindly to that, Robert earned the right to be called the king of the seven kingdoms when he defeated the mad king in a rebellion, and since you are here in his kingdom, would it not be wise to just play along like everyone else," Catelyn asked curiously.

"I will not now nor will I ever call anyone that has not proven themselves stronger than me to be my king, he can be yours for all I care, but I refuse to call him something so shameful when he hasn't proven himself," he practically snarled at her and watched her cower a bit from his glare.

"Is that how it works in Makai, a single one of your kind proves themselves stronger than all and rules until dethroned by someone more powerful," she asked in fear and intrigue, perhaps she can unravel some of the mystery revolving around this demon, and to her surprise, he shook his head.

"Not at first, but over time that is how it became to be, however I've always been like that, titles mean nothing to me if you cannot prove to me your strength, so if Robert demands respect, I'll tell him that and where he can shove his crown," Hiei informed her coldly but not as harshly.

Catelyn knew that was probably as good as she'll ever get from him and decided to drop the issue for now, "very well," she stood from her seat on the bed and folded her hands together, "and I thank you in advance for protecting my husband, no matter the reason," she quickly left after that.

Hiei didn't say anything as he watched her go, this was going to be nothing but trouble no matter how you viewed it, but this could be an ideal opportunity to gain knowledge and figuring out why the only reason he wants to go home is out of habit right now, and who knows, it might be fun, not.

* * *

Month later (day of Robert's arrival)

After a full damn month of waiting for the king, he finally arrives today with the rest of his entourage, traveling at what seemed like a snails pace to finally get here, Hiei was barely awake enough to focus on anything like that though, staying awake combing through the north's books. They had more books dealing with superstition then anything else, they were obviously people that believed more openly than the others around here, but they held a certain honor code about them that Hiei found intriguing, probably due to their worshiping of what people called the old gods.

Apparently there were a few religions around here, Hiei learned of a few of them while reading, the old gods, the seven gods, the lord of light is new, and the drowned god, so he combed through as many of their 'ancient texts' as he could find and found one thing, these people were all idiots. The old gods weren't anything but a face on a tree that people took as a sign of some kind of gods of the forest carved there by tree people thousands of years ago, they were all nameless and faceless, just a bunch of rocks and trees that people decided to worship. Then there was the faith of the seven, that history wanted Hiei to rip out his hair, it believed in seven gods, or was it one with seven faces, or was it seven with one face, Hiei couldn't tell what that faith was with so many rules you had to follow, and so many taboos it made his head hurt. That drowned god was something that Hiei felt the residents of the iron islands made up just so that they'd have an excuse to become pirates, so if anyone ever called them out on why they were pillaging somewhere they could use the religion as an excuse. The last religion is new, the lord of light that wants his enemies burned at the stake, other rules in the religion sounds like that one religion that worships that one god, Hiei thinks it's called Christianity or something like that, although this lord of light worship sounds like a perverse and harsher religion.

Despite having different religions, the current 'north' and 'south' are strong allies thanks to some rebellion being won over some girl being kidnapped by the prince at the time and therefore stealing her from the betrothed at the time, who was now known as this king Robert. Yet in spite of being called the seven kingdoms, there are in fact nine separate regions in this kingdom, the North, the Vale of Arryn, the Riverlands, the Iron Islands, the Westerlands, the Crownlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, and Dorne, with four wardens overseeing all of them. The North has Eddard Stark, an honorable man if Hiei had ever saw one, willing to swing his own sword to execute someone instead of telling someone else to have it done for him, if Kuwabara was here, he'd call that being the manliest of men, and on that Hiei had to agree, to some extent. The West has Tywin Lannister, an old man who has shown time and again that he puts family first and foremost, willing to stain his own hands in filth just to make sure his family progresses, believing that after everything is said and done, only family will live on, at least until it doesn't. The East has… did have Jon Arryn of the vale and hand to the king to be its warden, that job now goes to his son Robin, a boy that is barley out of his diapers is in charge of an entire region, Hiei would actually like to stay and find out how that works, if not learn how that boy would screw up. The South has Mace Tyrell, according to the books Hiei read, he's barely mentioned and gets passed up and overshadowed by his mother, Olenna Tyrell, an old woman who could be described as cunning as the fox himself if she wished, but just as blunt as himself, that could be fun.

These were just footnotes compared to what Hiei felt though, he could no longer feel any connection to spirit world either, none for demon world or any afterlife this realm has, and that made him feel pity for some of these humans, not a single one will know peace when they die. Since he's been an agent of spirit world for a while now, he's been granted access to something not many others have, he's been granted the right to enter spirit world without escort, just has to sense spirit world and go there, but there was none here, no afterlife of any kind actually, just nothing. Many of these humans believe that when they die, they go to heaven, get reincarnated, or go to hell, but there was nothing on the other side, just an infinite blackness, he felt pity for some, but for others he felt it would be justified, but not even he was heartless enough to tell them that.

Speaking of the people here, he's ran into a few of the Stark children and has to say, he hated most of them, the first one he met was Robb, he has a good tactical mind, but is often dictated by what his heart feels is the right choice, leads him to make mistakes when sparing with Jon Snow. Jon was a good boy, scratch that, he's the best boy in the world, he's the best swordsmen out of the children by far, has a good head on his shoulders, doesn't take nonsense from anyone, follows duty to the letter, has a warrior's heart, and yet was looked down upon by Catelyn, so strange. The next one was Sansa, tall for her age would be understating her tallness, she was the standard noble girl being raised for another nobleman or some kind of royalty, liked the songs and dolls and knitting that the other noble girls did, she was the most annoying out of all of them. Arya was an interesting one, she often dreamed of being a knight, while Hiei didn't see anything wrong about it, the rest wanted her to be a noble lady, but going by how she used a bow, that was as likely as Sansa rolling around in some mud pits for fun. Bran was a strange one to Hiei, he loved to climb and did so much of it that he instinctively knew where each hold was on every structure of Winterfell, ranging from towers to small buildings and sheds, the boy never missed a hold because he climbed so much. Rickon was the only one he hasn't met yet, the only one that stayed away from him, not because of anyone's instruction, but just because he was shy around the demon, thinking he was mean from the stoic look he always had on his face no doubt, but it didn't matter what some kid thought of him.

Others that are worth mentioning is Theon Greyjoy, basically a political hostage from a failed rebellion, he was here after being given to Ned Stark to ensure that the Greyjoys wouldn't try anything like this again, to Hiei he was just a cocky little bastard that shouldn't roam so freely. Next was the fat man that Hiei insulted when he first arrived, Ser Rodrik Cassel, he was the master of arms, meaning he was in charge of training people, he was good in a way, but it paled in comparison when Hiei showed off his own skills with a blade, he earned the man's respect. Maester Luwin is the one who treated his wounds when he was unconscious, their skills with medicine was outdated and their healing abilities archaic at best, using various herbs to bring about the body healing faster, it worked on the standard patient, not with a demon such as him. The Sept hated him after what she saw he did to the clothes she brought, he reduced the fur coat and standard attire she brought him down to what he liked, some cuts, some sowing, and a lot more alterations later and you had his standard all black attire he always had, she hated the look.

Now Hiei could see the king in the distance riding up and through the gates, trying to look mean even though he was nothing but a fat man that was probably crushing his horse, even up on the tower that he's on, sitting in a standard position one would find him in back home, he could tell. While the king rode, only Arya was missing from the lineup of the family of Starks, she came running in with a helmet on that her father took from her and basically shoved Bran aside and stood in line, order went Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robb, Ned, Catelyn, and finally Rickon. The long precession of people came through and Hiei watched as the first one of importance was Jaime, then prince Joffrey, then the hound, then the royal carriage no doubt carrying the queen, and then finally the last was the king looking mad and as tough as he could, which wasn't at all.

The Starks all bowed before the king got off his horse after servants brought a stool for him to use, he got off quite aggressively and stomped over to the family, he stopped just in front of Ned and made a motion with his hands meaning rise, the man and his family did. They stared at each other for a few moments before the king spoke, "you've got fat," the family was silent as they watched what their father would do, he subtly inclined his head to the king's form and they just chuckled with each other with big smiles before hugging. The king moved on to Catelyn with a, "Cat," and hugged her as well and gave little Rickon a head rub before moving back over to his friend, "nine years, why haven't I seen you, where the hell have you been," his voice was loud and boisterous, made Hiei want to tear out his own ears.

"Guarding the North for you, Your Grace, Winterfell is yours," Ned said as the queen stepped out along with the other prince and princess of the kingdom, and various servant girls that were all dressed up a little less extravagant than the queen and her children.

"Who have we here," Robert said as he moved to stand in front of Robb, "you must be Robb," and shook hands with each other, he continued down the line, "my you're a pretty one," to Sansa, "and your name is," she answered Arya, he moved to Bran, "show us your muscles." The boy did and the king chuckled, "you'll be a soldier," before going back to standing in front of Ned and looked around at all the faces as if looking for something, but didn't find it, "I've heard that you've got a new ward, where is he, I want to meet him, and why isn't he here?"

Ned swallowed a bit, not even going to ask how the spy master knew of Hiei, "he comes from a foreign land with a strange set of rules to follow, Your Grace, so please don't judge him harshly," he said before looking to the tower Hiei was at, "HIEI, PLEASE COME GREET KING ROBERT."

Hiei barely turned his head in their direction to his left before stepping off the ledge into the tower and disappeared to the rest of them, assuming that he was going to meet them after a few minutes, imagine their surprise when he got down and walked out of the crowd a second later. Hiei didn't bother to regard the king in any form as he circled the fat man, almost stalking him like he was prey, when he found what he was looking for, he walked off as though the man wasn't worth his time, disappeared into the crowd before using his speed to actually disappear.

"What in the seven hells was that about Ned," king Robert asked in a demanding tone, the boy under his friend's care just came down, circled him, and then left as if the king was beneath him, "people usually bow before their king, not circle me like I'm a peace of meet and then walk away."

"As I said, Your Grace, he comes from a foreign land with a set of rules to follow, his name is Hiei Jaganshi, his home is called Makai, and there it is believed that only the strongest have the right to rule, the stronger you are, the higher you are in ranking," Ned hastily explained.

"He said that there is a tournament in place to decide the next king of his lands, a tournament where everyone in the land participates and the winner is crowned king, so I believe that he will follow with that belief, defeat him and you win his loyalty," Catelyn informed as well.

Robert seemed to be concerned about that as he narrowed his eyes at the spot the boy left from and the queen came up from behind her husband as if board with the place already, she stuck her hand out and Ned bowed and kissed it with a, "my queen," out of respect for her position.

"Then we will simply have to teach the foreign heathen the proper way things are done," Cersei commented with condescension in her tone at how the Northern fools thought that some mere child could decide for himself how the world works, especially a heathen such as him.

"Take me to your crypt, I want to pay my respects, you can tell me about this Hiei as we walk," king Robert ordered before beginning to walk off but stopped when he got to Bran and waited for his old friend to get his wife off the man's back and catch up, seemed she had other ideas.

"We've been riding for a month, my love, surely the dead can wait," Cersei commented, it didn't seem to help anything because the king didn't budge and looked to his friend expectantly, Ned walked away from the queen and over to the king to leave his wife to the queen.

* * *

That night

A feast was going on to celebrate the king arriving in Winterfell and the joining of Sansa and Joffrey as one to be wed, Hiei heard the news but refused to celebrate with the rest of them, as far as he was concerned, the news would just prove to be even more of a headache than needed. Instead of being inside and at the feast, he was outside in the courtyard while watching as Jon Snow hacked away at a training dummy out of frustration, after a little while a black rider rode up and stopped to see Jon, "is he dead yet," the man asked with a smile while still on the horse.

Jon looked back and saw who it was, his face turned into a smiling one as the rider got off the horse, Jon dropped his sword and moved to meet the man, "uncle Benjen," he said as his uncle gave a laugh and met him halfway and met with a hug to his nephew, Hiei watched from atop a post.

"You got bigger," Benjen said while still hugging Jon before releasing him to see a smiling Jon, "rode all day, didn't want to leave you alone with the Lannisters, why aren't you at the feast," the uncle asked with his smile dimming a bit, almost dreading the answer that he knew was coming.

"Lady Stark thought it might insult the royal family to seat a bastard in their midst," Jon said sadly even though he knew that while the reason was legitimate, she still didn't want Jon anywhere near her so she took the opportunity to make him stay away a little while.

Benjen turned a little down at that, "well you're always welcome on the wall, no bastard was ever refused a seat there," it was a way of reassuring him that there was always some place that would accept Jon, though Hiei always thought such sentiments were trivial, the boy didn't.

"So take me with you when you go back," Jon said quickly, "father will let me if you ask him, I know he will," there was a moment or two of silence that passed between them, what a strange feeling it must be, to care about the fact you aren't wanted, the demon never understood.

"The wall isn't gong anywhere, and if you think you're ready to swear the oath, then you don't understand what you'd be giving up, we have no families, none of us will ever father sons, you don't care now, but you might, if you knew what it meant," the uncle told his nephew. He turned to the demon and walked over as Hiei hopped off the post, "and who is this, don't think I've seen you here before," he said as he brought out his hand in a friendly gesture, Hiei just stayed in the same position with his hands in his pockets, "not much of a talker are you."

"This is Hiei Jaganshi, he comes from an unknown land called Makai, father has taken him in as a new ward after finding him heavily wounded the same day we found the dire wolves," Jon introduced since it was clear that Hiei was not going to be speaking during anything.

"Well isn't that nice of him," Benjen stated before rattling was heard inside the banquet hall with the feast, "I'd better get inside, rescue your father from his guests," he took Jon's upper arms in an act of consolation, "we'll talk later," before going off and into the building.

Jon looked down before turning to go back to hitting the dummy until he heard a voice, "your uncle's in the Night's Watch," they turned to see a dwarf, Hiei guessed it was the imp that Catelyn mentioned, "I'm preparing for a night with your family," he walked forward and took a drink form a pouch. He looked a little smug and acted condescending yet had a humility about him that the queen and her brother didn't have, he leaned on a post and looked to Jon, "I've always wanted to see the wall," he commented almost as if deep in thought himself, though it did only seem that way.

"You're Tyrion Lannister, the queen's brother," Jon commented, yes, that sounded about right, the only one that had any brains or realistic views on actual life is the shortest one, he felt for the man, what with him stopped growing at five feet, they were a little closer in height than others.

"My greatest accomplishment," Tyrion said looking down before looking up, "and you, you're Ned Stark's bastard, aren't you," Jon looked from sad to mad and went over to strike at the dummy, "did I offend you, sorry," Jon turned back as Tyrion walked to him, "you are the bastard, though. Lord Eddard Stark is your father, and Lady Stark is not your mother, making you… the bastard," he stopped walking a little ways away, "let me give you some advice bastard, never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not, wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you."

The imp began walking away while eyeing Hiei a little bit, though the demon was sure that the imp didn't want to be caught doing so and let it slide by not reacting in kind, "what the hell do you know about being a bastard," Jon asked a little offended at the stranger giving him such advice.

Tyrion stopped in his walk and turned fully to Jon still with the drink in his hands and ready to sip any moment, "all dwarves are bastards in their father's eyes," he walked away again taking a drink from his container of whatever alcohol was in it, probably a strong one from the smell of it.

Jon went back to hacking away at the training dummy while Hiei walked away, he went to the feast and looked around and saw the conversations going on, Robert laughing, Catelyn and Cersei discreetly talking and remaining still, Ned and Jaime having a short talk before separating. He thought about going into their heads and finding out what went on there but decided the best thing would be to stay out of Stark's head, so he just entered Jaime's and discovered many secrets, he didn't care about them of course, but just knowing might help eventually. The rest of the night seemed unimportant to him, so he went elsewhere, to the smith shop actually, he had started gathering some materials to forge a new blade for himself, he was working on assembling the pommel and guard right now, and it was going well, looked exactly like the old one. He working through the night until he was too tired and took the now complete sword to his room where he decided to sleep as soundly as he could before starting the sheath, tomorrow the real fun might begin, and it was only going to cause him more headaches.


	3. A Demon Leave Winterfell

Game of Demons

Chapter 3

A Demon Leaves Winterfell

When Hiei woke up next, it was already in the afternoon, the sun high in the sky, though you couldn't really tell it since the North was always so cloudy, not that Hiei really minded the clouds or the cold, the people were actually close to his own personality better than those southerners. They cared too much for comfort and luxury, and just because Hiei had gotten used to it over the years does not mean he didn't remember how to survive, in fact, he knew how to survive better than that fat king that keeps shouting no matter what time it is, kept him up all night. He may have worked on his new sword most of the night, but that fat man kept shouting and disrupting his work often and made him growl in frustration, then through the night the man kept on shouting with his wife about something he was sure didn't matter. By the time that couple went to bed, Hiei had been up for most of the night and was about to test out the sharpness of his sword on the fat oaf, maybe use his bones as a toothpick after making a meal out of him, and maybe kill his bitch of a wife for her screeching as well.

He got out of bed and got dressed in his standard attire before walking out and down to the courtyard to train a bit in his swordsmanship, on the way he kept hearing the buzzing of servants and running of feet in preparation of food for lunch or dinner for the royal family of oafs, wasteful. As he continued his walk, he saw glimpses of the queen walking about, probably to either look for her brother or avoid any northerners, he didn't care, he just needed to get some training in, he didn't want his skills to get rusty from being stuck here without any real challenges.

When he finally got to the training yard, he found a trivial sight, the fake prince Joffrey was harassing Bran, his younger brother Tommen, Rob, and Rodrick, apparently the prince wanted bran and Tommen, those using wooden swords, to use real swords and fight each other. The boy stopped talking when he noticed the rest stop talking and gaze behind him, obviously at the demon, Joffrey turned and stared at the demon who dared interrupt his orders with his mere presence, the hound was also there, obviously to enforce the boy's order. Hiei looked to the scene and then looked directly at the fake prince with distain before looking at him as though he was nothing but dirt before turning to train on the other side of the yard, that is when everything went to hell, "you there, heathen," Joffrey called out, "do you not know your betters?"

Hiei stopped walking and turned his head to look back, barely even looking at the boy, did see the others present widen their eyes at what the prince just said, the boy must be use to having his ass kissed, "I do know my betters, but I don't see one anywhere in the area at the moment."

He began walking again after that, the prince must not have liked that, "Hound, I want that boy executed where he stands, do it now," he screeched and the demon could hear the Hound's barely audible grunt of, 'aye little prince,' and the drawing of cold steel and stomping of feet. As the Hound got ready to strike at the turned demon, that was still walking and seemingly not paying any attention, his sword was grabbed before it made contact, grabbed by an uninterested looking Hiei with one hand before disappearing in the blink of an eye and reappearing before the prince.

He looked ready to shit himself from the sheer presence of Hiei, Joffrey looked ready to say something else until he saw it, he saw what's in the demon's hand, still in his hand was the blade to the sword of the Hound himself, held by just the slim fingers of the fire demon. Slowly, he raised the blade up, held it above the prince's head and held it there, held it there for ten full seconds before letting go, that's all he did, just let go and let the blade drop, but he still had his hand in the air, slowly moving it through the tense silence that filled the air. The hand stopped just above Joffrey's left shoulder before dropping it and with the dropping of the hand, came it laying to rest on his shoulder and that is when the prince finally felt it, the weight that came with the hand, the weight that came with the mere touch of the demon. It was fear, fear the likes of which the prince had never felt before, fear that made him freeze, fear that actually made this moron and perfect example of the dangers of inbreeding not want to tell his mother, he wasn't sure if his death by the demon's hand was worth it or not.

"Do we understand each other, boy," Hiei calmly said with the hand still on his shoulders, all Joffrey could do was mutely nod slowly as to not disrupt the monster in front of him, "good," he pulled the hand away and turned before walking away, he stopped when he got to the Hound. He was just standing there with wide eyes at the speed of Hiei and how he stopped and then took his sword from him, but as he looked on Hiei turned his head back to look at the prince, "tell your bitch hag of a mother and that fat oaf of a father that some people sleep at night." And left with that order given, it wasn't a request, the Starks knew that, both Baratheon boys knew that, and the Hound knew that, this man doesn't make requests, he makes demands, orders, and those that don't follow will meet the end of their lives the way that he wishes.

He walked until he was outside of Winterfell and kept walking until he was a few leagues from it and began training with his sword, training until he heard the screeching that came from the queen, probably being told by someone about what he had done, not that he cared. A weak human like her thinking she could kill or harm him, ridiculous, he has made no attachments here, has no one that knows who he is or what his skill level is, and therefore there was no way that some human woman can kill him, or poison him with human poisons either. Even if they try to catch him off guard would prove to be difficult, not to mention there wasn't much that can pierce the hardened skin of a super S-class demon on par with some of the most powerful and ancient of demons, so Cersei couldn't really do anything.

It wasn't long after that he heard horses galloping towards him in a withheld fury, it wasn't long before the rider of the horse came into view, or should he say riders, because it seemed like he brought with him twenty men to take the demon into custody, mainly for a false charge more likely. The one leading them was none other than Jaime Lannister, golden hair bound by the golden helmet that he wore and had a calm yet furious aura about him that made most men step back a few paces for some false sense of safety, Hiei on the other hand just stood there like nothing was wrong. The riders all moved in and surrounded him in a circular formation while Jaime stepped into the enclosed circle, he got off his horse roughly and strutted up to the smaller man and glared as he removed his helmet and spoke, "you are to come with me at the order of her majesty."

"Why," it was one word, one word said with such a stoic voice that held experience upon experience when it came to the art of intimidation, but the men didn't know it, and yet, the horses were growing even more restless from the mere presence of this five foot heathen.

"A servant reportedly saw you take the Hound's sword blade and threaten prince Joffrey with it, when the prince was asked about what happened, he was to terrified to answer and instead stormed to his room, so we only have the servant girl's testimony," Jaime reported a bit arrogantly.

"Then you're taking the words of a servant girl seriously, someone so weak-minded that they haven't been able to get out of a servant position yet, who knows what she saw, now leave me, I'm training," Hiei ordered with his blade drawn and pointed downwards, the man laughed.

"If you're trying to be threatening with that little thing, than I suggest you do something a little more aggressive than pointing it downwards," the kingslayer said as he pulled out his own blade and got in his own stance, he thought that the demon was threatening him, very untrue.

Faster than anyone in the group had ever seen, he knocked them all out with the back of his katana in what seemed like one instant, they didn't even see the small flashes of light that came with his sword reflecting light, and with the men not keeping the horses in check, they ran off. Hiei reappeared in the same position as before as if nothing had ever happened with the same stoic look on his face, "I wasn't being threatening, I was simply telling you not to believe servant so easily, brother deceiver," he glared at Jaime with hatred, but it wasn't for what he's used to.

Jaime himself was taken aback by the sudden name, 'brother deceiver', he's use to being called 'kingslayer', but he's never been called brother deceiver, "I don't know what you're talking about, people usually hate me for being a kingslayer, not whatever it is you're talking about."

Hiei narrowed his eyes, "why would I hate someone who did the honorable thing and killed a king that was burning people from the madness brought about through incest," he questioned and got Jaime to narrow his eyes in suspicion, it was obvious he wasn't just talking about the mad king. "Yet you do know what I'm talking about, how you tricked Tyrion into being with a woman for the first time with a rape scenario, however you failed to count for him falling in love and marrying her, which is where your father came in and crushed his heart, I find what you let happen repulsive."

Jaime was stunned, how did this stranger know about that a private family matter, moreover, what right did he have to judge him, he raised his sword threateningly again, "I don't know where you learned this, but do not presume to know all the details, I never meant for father to know."

"Yet he did find out, then he forced your younger brother to watch as he let his men have their way with her, each solder paying her and when it was over had enough silver to forget about him, I'm known back in Makai for being heartless, but that was truly heartless," Hiei glared harder now. Then softened on the glare somewhat, "but you never meant to hurt him, you just wanted him to know what it's like to be with a woman, you truly do love your brother as apposed to your bitch of a sister who still blames him for the death of her mother, something he had no control over. You do what you do for love and she does what she does because she's a heartless bitch," he put his blade back in it's sheath and began walking forward stopped before Jaime who was to frozen by the demon and his speed to do anything, "if you wish to fight, you'll lose," he walked passed.

Jaime wasn't able to do anything as the demon just began to walk away, his speed was faster than lightning, striking down his men with the back of his blade before outing secrets that he's never told anyone up north, or anyone, told what his sister was thinking that he couldn't. Then finally just stated outright that he'd lose if he fought against the demon, but that alone shouldn't be enough to make him freeze, he's a battle hardened veteran, but the feeling that was being given to him, just the feeling was enough to make a lesser man piss himself.

By the time that Jaime finally turned around, Hiei was already halfway back to Winterfell, such a great distance in such a short amount of time, or was it he stayed frozen longer than he thought, what was that boy to have such an impact on him, what shaped the boy in such a way? He had no choice but to cast it from his mind for now as he heard his men groan as they began to rise, deciding to check on them first before riding back, he'd report something else to Cersei, something about the servant girl lying, they'd never be able to fight that monstrous boy.

* * *

Next morning

Hiei woke up earlier than yesterday, the sleep was somewhat better, not by much, but better all the same as compared to the other night, mainly due to the king and queen obviously taking his… advice seriously enough to actually stop arguing so people could get some sleep, or argue quietly. He woke up in enough time to see Robert, Starks, Snow, and a few of the kingsguard to leave for a hunt, the 'king' didn't look too happy with anything much at the moment, despite Stark accepting the request to become hand of the king, probably because of what his wife told him. Apparently when he got back and slept on that tree with the face, the queen and king were told by the kingslayer that they should avoid angering the demon at all costs, avoid it at all costs. The king didn't like that his son was vaguely threatened, neither did the queen, nor did the king like it when the kingslayer himself told him that the demon would kill them without a second thought, it disturbed him and the queen that he held no regard for their lives at all, either of their lives.

The hunt was a way to take some of his small mind off of the demon, possibly a way to help reconnect with an old friend, get away from the kids and wife that, with a quick scan of his Jagan, was fucking her brother in the broken tower, and left the king to leave with his friend to hunt. Sadly, as the group was riding out, Hiei was on the roof of the castle and watching as Bran was running for the broken tower, he quickly found the path up and began to climb, that won't end well, but Hiei's own honor forbade him for letting the child perish, or possibly perish.

So he watched as the boy climbed the tower, and when he got to the window, he watched as he just sat there frozen in shock before Jaime came and discussed things with the boy before pushing him from the window, that is when he acted, in a flash the boy was saved from death. Not by the gods or spirits, but by Hiei the demon, he was just a blur and caught the boy before he hit the ground, nothing was bruised and there were no cuts, just a bit traumatized at what he saw and how fast he was saved from near death, and then he was just put down on the ground. Bran felt a hand on his head and in a flash, nothing, he looked around confused as to why he was on the ground, last thing he remembered was climbing the broken tower, he felt deep concern for that lost time, but he still left the area to go find something else to climb.

Hiei on the other hand, after wiping the boy's mind of the incident, appeared on the window in an instant and the queen immediately widened her eyes and backed away as Jaime stopped and turned to what she was looking at, and to his horror, he saw the demon from yesterday. "Next time you morons try and do that when not in your own home, you can come to me and I'll put whatever ridiculous notions you have out of your head," Hiei glared at them form the window as he stepped fully into the room with a menacing aura about him.

"Not going to berate us for fucking each other, for cheating on my husband, pushing the young stark boy out the window, for having children and calling them the king's," Cersei asked with a sneer at this boy, Jaime warned them, but what could this boy do that was so bad to them.

"Actually, I'm used to lies and deceit so much where I come from that one this 'big' is nothing to me, nor is the two of you screwing each other," at the term screw they looked confused for but a moment before guessing what the word means, "it's the stupidity of your actions that I don't like." He took a step and was behind the queen in an instant grabbing her by the neck and forcing her against the wall, Jaime was about to act when Hiei glared at him and made him freeze, "you two should not do this here so little boys could see you, know your surroundings and the people you're with. That boy loves to climb, if you paid attention to that detail then you would have known not to fuck while here, he would have been killed or paralyzed by that fall, meaning it would be more troublesome for me to protect the family that may have saved my life, so watch yourself."

Hiei let her go and drop to her hands and knees as she began gasping for air, not even looking back as he began to walk back to the window while Jamie ran to his sister's side, he was almost to it when he heard her rasp out, "you'll pay for this, how dare you threaten me, the queen."

He turned his head back to glance over his shoulder, "and why should I care, what could you possibly do to me," he stuck his hand out to the side and a fire came to life in it, "I'm more powerful than anything you could possibly throw at me," he extinguished the fire and dropped his hand. "I could destroy your entire lives with a mere word of what has gone on," he pointed out the window at the king off in the distance, "all it would take is one word and my knowledge of genetics and you and your children will be hunted for the rest of your lives," he dropped his hand again. "Poison does not work on me as I automatically burn through it, you cannot defeat me in combat, cannot poison me, cannot harm those I owe anything to for I will seek vengeance a thousand times over, so do not make threats you cannot keep, you just waste what little brains you have."

He turned his head back and began walking again, this time reaching the window and jumping out of it, landing on the ground as if it were nothing before continuing to walk away from the tower that the queen and her brother was watching him from, he made an enemy, but it was small one. Though, Cersei will not forget this, she will never forget the demon that defied her and told her what she is, a weak and pathetic human that can do nothing against him, for whatever she does would be done to her right back, so how was she supposed to obtain his allegiance, she wasn't.

* * *

A month later

It has now been one month and today is the day that they were to leave, they being Hiei, Stark, Sansa, Arya, and the royal family, they were leaving and going to King's Landing so Ned Stark could be the hand of the king, Sansa could marry prince Joffrey, and Arya to learn to be a lady. Although, it was not without some drawbacks along the way, the king was quite pissed when he learned that the demon was coming back with him to his castle, he had stated over and over again that he will not be coming back with them, Hiei made the wonderful argument against it. Mainly he just stated that he'll do what he wants since nobody was able to force him into not doing what he wanted, King Robert's counter argument to that was a loud vocal shouting of forbidding such a thing, he was ignored until he decided to just ignore the demon outright. Hiei much preferred that since every time that he opened his mouth with a logical argument, the king would just yell against it saying that 'the king can do as he likes' or something like that, it was beginning to annoy the demon greatly, yet he was not killing the fat oaf, to troublesome.

That being said, there were a few enjoyable moments, such as teaching Jon Snow some more useful sword skills that would be better suited for the wall, which he finally talked his uncle into taking him with him when he went back, Hiei wasn't letting him go without proper sword skills. His interactions with the hound was entertaining to the rest of the people to watch, whenever their paths would cross in the courtyard or wherever there was people, they would stop and stare at each other for a few moments before the hound drew his sword, Hiei would grab and discard it. Then came his interactions with the rest of the royal family, Cersei and Joffrey would avoid him the best they could, they still remembered how they had humiliated them and showed that he was not afraid to destroy their lives or take them should he so choose they weren't worth it. Marcella was a nice girl that was kind and caring, Tommen was quite the naïve child but also had a good heart, it was hard to believe that those two came from the same people that brought forth Joffrey, but this was a good example of the nature vs nurture argument that humans came up with. He hadn't interacted with Tyrion much, or at all really, but that just made him delve into his mind, which was admittedly harder than his sibling's minds, they had all but opened the door for him whereas Tyrion had pushed back some, but still succumbed to the reading, don't think he cared though.

Hiei was currently on the stone wall of Winterfell and waiting for them to leave, everyone else had said goodbye already, well, said goodbye to each other, nobody said bye to him and he suspected that was because they just wanted to be rid of him, oh well, not any of his business. The king and his entourage had began to file out of the gates and Hiei instantly appeared by the side of Ned and his brother Benjen, he didn't say a word and neither did the other two, they just rode until they reached a crossroad and separated, Benjen right and Ned to the left.

Would have gone left had he not stopped to let his son Jon ride up to him for some parting words, "there's great honor serving in the Night's Watch, the Starks have manned the Wall for thousands of years, and you are a Stark, you might not have my name, but you have my blood," Ned said.

Jon took his words carefully before looking straight ahead, "is my mother alive, does she know about me, where I am, where I'm going," he turns to face his father for some of the answers to the questions that he's wanted to ask, "does she care," that was his main one, does she care?

Ned hesitated for a moment before looking to his son with some regret in his eyes, "the next time we see each other, we'll talk about your mother, I promise," that was all Ned could offer him at the present time, a set date that would allow them to talk about the mother of a bastard boy.

Jon nodded and Ned road off to catch up with the rest of those that were traveling south, he keeping pace like it was nothing, he didn't say a word until they were out of earshot of the boy and the southern soldiers, "I think you should have told the boy of his true heritage before now." Ned was shocked and looked down to the little demon that only looked up to him and said, "akuma skills," while pointing to his Jagan eye, over the course of his stay, it became necessary to teach them some words that could keep his species a secret from other, akuma meant demon.

Ned looked a little disturbed by that little tidbit of information, yet he talked none the less, "I couldn't have, I promised his mother that I'd protect him, the best way to protect the boy is to let him remain ignorant of his heritage, but I can't keep him protected forever, only for so long."

"Hn, that's a terrible excuse, and I've heard a lot of them," he continued to walk silently alongside of the Stark and an astoundingly slow pace, agonizing, snail, turtle, slow pace, it soon got to the point where he could no longer stand it and silently appeared on top of the royal carriage to sleep. He slept up there for some time, then when they stopped to rest he watched the conversation between Ned and Robert, he didn't listen, just watched, he also made sure to keep a close eye on the Stark daughters as well, the younger one befriended a butcher's boy, that won't end well.

For a few days after that it was peaceful, the road south was becoming a little less rocky and cold and became quite smooth and warm, when they got to an inn a couple weeks out, they were quite tired already, Hiei was sitting on a branch watching as Arya and the butcher's boy were 'training.' Ned was with Robert while they ate, Sansa was walking with Joffrey, they were talking since they were to be married, and so Joffrey came in trying to be tough, yet Sansa exclaimed, "Arya," and said girl was distracted and managed to land a hit on the little girl, he was sub-par at best.

Arya was rubbing where he hit before looking to Sansa and Joffrey angrily, "what are you doing here," to be honest, Hiei thinks that she needs to learn to think before she speaks a bit more, "go away," some of the reason for that is what is more than likely about to go down.

"Your sister," Joffrey asked Sansa casually, not caring how she was speaking to him, and then he closed in on the red haired butcher's boy, "and who are you boy," ironic how he was calling him boy when he wasn't even a man yet, and if Hiei had anything to say about it, he wouldn't be.

"Mycah, my lord, I'm the butcher's boy and Arya's friend," that must have caused a trigger to go off in the bastard prince's mind, because his eyes gained a malicious and sick gleam, most with experience would be able to tell right away, but these were kids that were squabbling.

"A Butcher's boy who wants to be a knight, eh," the boy asked and got a wonderful idea, "pick up your sword butcher's boy," he said motioning for the boy to pick up his stick while he drew his sword, "let's see how good you are," he took a step in the boy's direction.

That was when the boy opened his big mouth, "she asked me to, my lord, she asked me to," that was when the look in his eyes turned really sick, no doubt imagining all of the things that he'd do to the boy, or have someone else do for him since he was too cowardly to do it himself.

"I'm your prince, not your lord, and I said pick up your sword," Joffrey said dangerously close to threatening, that is where Hiei decided that he should intervene, just so he could save himself the headache that came with the fallout of what was about to happen if he didn't.

"And if you don't leave and let them practice, you'll be an infertile prince," Hiei's stoic voice cut through the conversation like a hot knife through butter, they all looked as he came from the shadows of the tree and looked to each one individually, watching how each of them flinched.

The one who took the look hardest was Joffrey though, he recoiled visibly and bowed his head in fear of angering the demon, "I've grown bored here, come lady Sansa," he openly said as he re-sheathed his sword, "we shall go somewhere else for our walk," him and Sansa began walking away.

Hiei watched them leave, when they were gone turned his eyes to look at the two kids that were playing, if they were going to learn, they might as well learn properly, "both of you," he got their attention, "pick up your sticks, you're going to learn how to properly swing a sword, now." His barking commands were instantly followed, he didn't want to do this, but if they were going to do anything like this, then they were going to do it in a way that didn't make them look silly, "I'm going to teach you how to survive a fight with what I can see you're good at. Arya, give me your stick," she handed over her stick and with a few swipes of his hand, the stick was to the size of her needle, "I saw the sword Jon gave you, you'll be using that so you'll train with something similar in size," he gave it back to her and turned to Mycah, who gave his stick. With one swipe, the stick was a few inches shorter, "you'll probably have a sword closer to this length at first, your arms wouldn't take it if you had something bigger until you trained them up a bit," he gave the stick back to the boy and went to work training would-be soldiers.


	4. King's Landing and Their Lies

Game of Demons

Chapter 4

King's Landing and Their Lies

Hiei and the rest of the force joining Ned Stark was riding into King's Landing, it stunk, seriously, it smelled like human waste, was there even a reason for them to actually be here, so many people crammed into one city hardly seems to provide anything other than a nuisance. With the Stark caravan riding up, people were even gathered around the place to see them riding in, all they saw were horses, men riding horses, a carriage full of luggage, girls riding on the carriage, and one short man in black walking with hands in his pockets, and glaring at them all.

The Stark caravan stopped in the courtyard and unloaded themselves as a man approached them, "welcome Lord Stark, Grand Maester Pycelle has called a meeting of the Small Council, the honor of your presence is requested," really, a meeting as soon as they arrived, what a way to start.

Ned turned back to his men, "get the girls settled in, I'll be back in time for supper, and Jory, you go with them," he ordered and they all made ready to comply, he then turned to Hiei, "I suppose now is the time to see who it actually is that is trustworthy, you shall be joining me," he ordered.

Hiei nodded as Ned turned back to the man, "if you'd like to change into something more appropriate," the man offered and Ned just took off his gloves as he stared him down, the man nervously turned around and began leading them to where they needed to go, awkwardly.

It was the throne room, the doors opened and Jaime Lannister was sitting on the steps leading up to a throne made of swords, "thank the gods' you're here Stark, about time we had some stern Northern leadership," Jaime stated out mockingly to him, whether it was meant as a mock or not.

"Glad to see you're protecting the throne," Ned dryly commented himself, Hiei looked back and forth between them, these damn humans, their banter with each other and the unwillingness to look beyond their own pride or ways of life is something that Hiei always hated, always.

"Sturdy old thing," Jaime said stepping towards the new hand, "how many king's asses have polished it, I wonder, but what's the line, the king shits and the hand wipes," the golden haired man mocked, this banter back and forth between them is starting to get on Hiei's nerves.

Ned looked down to the golden boy's armor, "very handsome armor, not a scratch on it," he noted right back to the man, "people must have swung at you and always missed, you've chosen your opponents wisely then," this was getting to be too tedious to watch, and pointless.

"Alright, you don't like each other, everyone gets it," they turned to look at the fire demon, "Stark doesn't like the kingslayer because he stabbed his king in the back and Lannister doesn't like Stark because he scorns him for saving so many lives by killing one man, let's move on from it."

They stared between each other and back to the little man before back to each other, before Stark sighed, "he's right, I do scorn you for stabbing your king, and yet you did save many lives, and when you did serve him you did so well," then he glared at him, "when serving was safe."

Stark walked off and Hiei had to struggle to not role his eyes as he just nodded to the kingslayer for a greeting before following him behind the throne room where a bald headed man met them, "Lord Stark," he outstretched his hand and Stark took it, "I am pleased to hear you've had a safe journey."

"Lord Varys," Stark said as he then moved on while Hiei did a quick scan of Varys's mind, he was actually safe, surprising, "Renly, you're looking well," he said and hugged the next man, he was black haired and dressed in simple but fine clothes, yet another one he had to scan a mind of.

"You're looking tired from the road," Renly commented, a quick scan showed that he can at least be trustworthy, though most other would not like his sexual orientation, Hiei just scoffed at it, along with his lover, knight of the flowers, "I told them this meeting could wait another day, but."

"But we have a kingdom to look after," it was apparently time for the third man in the room to speak up, and his mind is the one mind that told Hiei to be weary of, be very weary of it, "I've hoped to meet you for some time, Lord Stark, no doubt Lady Catelyn has mentioned me."

"She has, Lord Baelish," Ned said as he folded up his cape and put it on his seat and then looked to the lanky man in question, "I understand you knew my brother Brandon as well, carrying a token of his esteem form what I hear, from navel to collarbone, chose the wrong man to duel with?"

"But it wasn't the man I chose, my lord, it was Catelyn Tully," Baelish countered back and there was a small glint in Stark's eyes, something akin to rage at the mention of Baelish's affections for his wife, "a woman worth fighting for, I'm sure you'll agree," Hiei hated this man already.

"I humbly beg your pardon, my Lord Stark," an old man also said, he was slouching his shoulders and had his voice sounding raspy, "how many years has it been, you were a young man," and then he remembered something, "oh how forgetful of me," he pulled out a symbol, "this goes to you."

"And who is it that you've brought with you lord Stark," Varys asked out loud as he stared at Hiei, "could you be the famous Hiei of House Jaganshi that I've heard so much about," he stuck out his hand for the smaller man to shake, he received a grunt and a small incline of his head instead.

"This is my ward, I saved his life a month before king Robert came and have been taking care of him since then so he has sworn to protect me as payment for saving him," Ned informed them using the lie that Hiei instructed him to tell them, a lie mixed with truth, but still a lie.

"Should we begin," Renly asked out loud and got a look from Ned, then he looked to the door, "winter may be coming, but I'm afraid the same cannot be said for my brother," oh great the king is inept and doesn't even oversee his own council so he can root out the corruption himself.

Varys coughed a bit to draw in Stark's attention, "his grace has many cares, he entrusts some small matters to us that we might lighten the load," he said as a way to rationalize the laziness of this king, though it was clear that not even the spider could make it sound believable.

Renly handed Ned a scroll as he set down, "my brother instructs us to stage a tournament in honor of Lord Stark's appointment as hand of the king," oh great, the king was not only lazy, but he has also possibly bankrupted the entire kingdom, what a useless man.

"40,000 Gold Dragons to the champion, 20,000 to the runner-up, 20,000 to the winning archer," Ned listed off what was supposed to be owed to the winners of the event, "can the treasury even afford that kind of expense," he asked to Baelish, who was Master of Coin, another problem.

"I'll have to borrow it, the Lannisters will accommodate I expect, we already owe Lord Tywin three million gold, what's another 80,000," that was the slimy eel's rationality, great, and even if they only owed three million in debt, that was still a substantial sum of money over all.

"Are you telling me the crown is three million in debt," Stark asked the Master of Coin, though it was more than likely it was out of shock than anything else, but when Baelish just held up two fingers for the lord stark to double the amount, "six million, how could you let this happen?"

"The Master of Coin finds the money," Baelish started saying to gain his attention, "the king and the hand spend it," oh what a way to shift the blame, with the look inside the lying piece of garbage before them he knew the brothel owner was what humans referred to as a 'white collar criminal'.

"You may not believe that Jon Arryn would allow Robert to bankrupt the Realm, but Arryn gave wise and prudent advice, but his grace doesn't listen, calls it 'counting coppers'," Renly informed the hand while scratching his left temple at the last bit, and there was bitterness in his voice.

Ned sighed, "I'll speak to him tomorrow, this tournament is an extravagance we cannot afford, and there will be no plans until I speak to Robert," he told them sternly and they nodded, "now, what other business is there to discuss," he asked them, from there Hiei tuned them out.

It wasn't long before all the lords left and it was just the two of them, "I assume you want the information now rather than later," Stark nodded, "trust Varys and Renly, Varys has the Realm's best interests at heart, Renly is a, what do you call it, a good man, either way those two are fine." Stark nodded at the information, he expected as much, "don't trust Baelish, he gave the previous hand's wife poison to kill him, she's in love with Baelish and wants him instead of her husband, told her to send a raven telling you it was the Lannisters, also sent an assassin after Bran. The last he heard from the North was that the assassin failed in his mission and was killed thanks to your son's direwolf, he plans on instigating a war that will take the lives of many and using Cersei's hate for her husband to do so, also Pycelle has been serving the Lannisters for years."

Ned Stark was shocked beyond words, someone Cat had placed so much faith in when she was a young girl is the cause for so much harm, the death of his foster father and even he even sent an assassin to kill his son, all to start a war between the Starks and the Lannisters, it was sickening. Thank the gods for the direwolves, they may have helped save off a war that nobody knew would be coming, and the news about him using the queen's hate for Robert was even more sickening, not to mention Pycelle being a servant to the Lannisters, "what can we do about any of this?"

"Nothing, we have no proof on anything other than my word and regular ningen won't just believe akuma abilities such as mine, so you have nothing to really go on other than that," Hiei told him before turning to walk away, "for now play along and don't draw attention, I have business."

* * *

The Street of Steel

One of the facts that Hiei pulled from the unprotected heads of all four men was that a certain boy lived here, on the Street of Steel, this was home to a bastard boy named Gendry, who was the son of Robert Baratheon, the king of the seven kingdoms, yet there was something about him. Gendry couldn't just be another bastard boy born to Robert, no there had to be something more to him, so Hiei decided to go looking and appeared above the street overlooking the boy's workshop where he apprentices, the boy was probably better than his master in crafting though. Hiei set down on the roof cross-legged and began looking into the boy's mind, what he was doing takes much more effort on his part, so he must concentrate hard on Gendry's mind and delve back to the boy's most early memories, and it was there that he learned of who the boy was.

"Interesting," Hiei said to himself as he saw the image of Gendry being born in a nice and royal room, then Cersei holding the boy in her arms, cradling him as if he was the most important thing ever to exist, it seems that the boy is no bastard but a true and natural born Baratheon it seems. He speed up what he was seeing and saw the next intriguing sight, it seems that Baelish was a bit more cunning than what he first thought, he switched the child in secret with a child looking the same and gave it to his mother, then gave the real Baratheon to a whore that Robert laid with. The whore had just had a baby herself, but while she was resting, Baelish took the children and switched them, gave the bastard to Cersei and the true born to the whore, the bastard died and the true born lived until this day and lived as Gendry, going through the whore mother's death.

That was all Hiei needed, Cersei actually thought her child from Robert was dead and so did that fat oaf, so he became even more ravenous, Cersei grew more hate form the whoring and scorned him more and drove the king to continue whoring some more, it was a cycle that never ended. Hiei stood from his sitting position and watched the boy work, he was pounding on a burning hot metal slab to shape it into form, each strike was precise and hit the mark with trained accuracy and before long it needed to be heated again, so it went back to the fire to heat it up to continue. Gendry must have sensed eyes on him and looked around to see anything turned around to the street to see anything, he didn't so he looked up and only saw the sun high in the sky, so he shrugged and turned back to continue his work until the blade he was working on was ready.

Hiei was walking casually down the street with his hands in his pockets, he had speed around faster than anyone could see and scrounged up a decent amount of gold coin to begin a nice plan he made, he casually strolled into the armory when the master appeared, "how may I help you?"

"I wish to speak with the boy," Hiei grunted and the master gulped at how he sounded, the man turned to get the boy, while he was gone Hiei studied the swords around him, they were some of the best he'd ever seen to be honest, each one would only enhance the skills of a swordsmen.

"You wished to speak with me milord," Gendry asked as he came up to him, his master having to talk to another possible patronage, Hiei said nothing as he pulled out his blade and handed it to the boy, Gendry took it and looked appalled for a moment, "did you make this yourself milord?"

Okay, Hiei knew he wasn't the best craftsmen ever but to be honest he didn't think it was so bad that he would get an appalled look from the boy, "I know how to fight with it, that's all that matters to me, but to survive I need it to be in a good quality, can you make the same blade?"

Gendry looked it over before looking back at his tools and looked to be going over things in his head for a moment before he smiled, "yes milord, it may take some work with my tools and many adjustments must be made on them, but I should be able to get you a better quality sword."

"Very well, I will pay you when it is done and I can inspect it, I'll pay you double if it is good," Hiei said before handing over the sheath as well for the boy to put the finished product in, "and the sword you will be making is called a katana, I thought you should know that," he walked out. To be honest he was cursing on the inside, Hiei hated being told something of his wasn't good, so for someone to tell him that his own blade, which he takes much better pride in than what he claimed, was in such a sorry state, it made him extra grouchy for a little bit knowing that.

He speed back to the castle and began to walk around a bit, when he found Stark he was coming out of Arya's chambers, "good to see you have taken care of that business you had," he said as he began walking, Hiei following behind, "I won't ask what it was to respect your privacy." The fire demon nodded and followed after the Stark until they reached a door, it wasn't Ned's door so he wondered what was in the room, "this is the room where you'll be staying while you're here," he informed while he opened the wooden door, it was a nice and cozy little room.

"Unnecessary," Hiei stated and Ned gave him a look, probably going to say something about him and all of his men needing a place to stay, counting Hiei amongst his men and making sure that his so-called ward was also cared for and able to sleep safely, "fine," he said before going inside. Ned nodded at him before closing the door and walking away, both had things to look over in their minds, Hiei on what he's learned today and Ned on what he's bore witness to today, the lies are told so easily here, there was no shred of honor here, only one thing, a lust for money and power.

* * *

A week later

A week later Hiei was waiting in a room alone, waiting for Stark to bring Arya, apparently he found out about her Needle and decided to do something about it, telling her that if she's going to own a sword then she's going to know how to use it, and what better master than himself. Though he almost didn't agree to is, especially after learning that the moron of a Hand of the King decided to not inform his wife that she shouldn't trust Baelish, but he was convinced that his wife couldn't be swayed because she trusts her sister and her letter too much to believe it was Baelish. So Catelyn Stark decided to just not care for the warning of Hiei or her husband and decided to believe in her childhood friend, Ned was forced to play along until she was out of sight and instead of going back to Baelish to talk went back to the Red Keep and informed Hiei of everything. The demon was combing through the books and tombs that they had and was finding anything that would tell him of some way to get back home, but it took time, and most of his time is with guarding Stark or training on his own with his own sword katas, or sleep.

He head the door opening and in came Arya first, then her father, "good of you to finally arrive," he grunted before tossing a wooden sword her way, she barely caught it and sloppily got into a stance that he taught her before with her sword parallel to her arm held at an angle to her side. That stance was the only thing taught to her and that boy the day of the almost attack before they had to go their separate ways, so now he was going to teach her the rest of it as well since now he actually had time to teach her, Stark made sure of it now, and that wasn't too bad.

Hiei got beside her and Arya turned to him to be at the ready, he only raised an eyebrow at her and she felt the need to explain herself, "aren't you going to teach me how to use a sword," he nodded his head subtly, "then shouldn't we be facing each other to practice how to use it?"

Now he understood her confusion, "that is not how you train someone to use a sword properly, the first thing you do is make sure everything about them is correct, such as their stance," he said as he got to her quickly and pulled her feet out from under her, she landed with a thud. "If your legs are too far apart they lose balance, too close like they were and you lose the strength to stand," he pulled her back up with one hand and set her legs the correct distance apart with the wooden sword, "but the legs don't mean anything if you don't have the arms for anything." He smacked the sword out of her hands, "remember everything I teach you at all times so you can attack from anywhere at any time," he said and stepped back so she could pick up her wooden blade, "first we perfect the stance, then the movements, then you may clash with me."

Arya got into her stance and this time when he got beside her, she didn't move to in front of him, he brought the wooden sword that he had and brought it level with hers and in the same position, then he swung it out, eyes shooting to her to do the same, she did and copied his movement. Then he swung his wood down and made a diagonal slash with it, she did the same a moment later, brought the wood up following the same diagonal path, she copied his movement, the wood came across the air swiftly from right to left and was again copied by the girl, the girl was learning. Then he sent his wood diagonal top left to bottom right, it was copied, brought back to where it was even with his eyes in a double grip, that too was copied, so he thought he'd up the difficulty, he spun and attacked behind him with a downward slash, she tried to copy it but fell on her butt.

She grunted as she fell in pain before standing back up quickly, "you are good at copying simple movements at the moment," he grabbed her throat fast and pulled her in close, "but do not get cocky because of it, these are base movements, learn them by heart before you get cocky." He let go of her throat before getting back in his stance, it took her a moment before realizing that they were going again, so she did so and got back into position, he started his set of movements again and she followed, all while Stark watched for a time before leaving looking a bit troubled.

* * *

Few weeks later

Hiei had just about had it with the foolishness of everyone here, Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, Baelish, Pycelle, Cersei, Joffrey, and last of all the moronic court that was here in this stinking city, all of them were nothing but fools and the world would be better off without them. Robert Baratheon only ate, slept, and fucked whores all day, Baelish and Pycelle seemed to work in tandem to make sure there was nothing done about the previous hand's murder and called it a sickness, all while Pycelle reported everything to the vicious bitch Cersei. The queen and her oldest son where morons of the highest caliber, a few times through the many weeks he's been here they tried to poison him, his own inner fire burned through it and he built his own poison resistance to them so he at least had something good come from it. Ned Stark was a naïve fool, he refused to listen to his advice on not just not trusting Baelish but also staying away from him unless necessary, but because his wife visited in secret and asked Baelish to help Stark as well, he's decided to keep looking into the Hand of the King's business. The rest of the lords at court were starting to get on his last nerve, they wanted the demon in their pockets or debts or owe them favors, so they've been trying to wiggle their way into his company, none have succeeded, so they keep trying and he's ready to burn them all to ash.

For his patience though, he's rewarded a few saving graces, one such thing is the training sessions with Arya, she learns quickly and at the age she is and her similar body type to his own makes her the perfect candidate to pass on what he knows to the next generation, mainly her. He's been meaning to find an heir of his own and sculpt them into a great replica of himself, perhaps even better if pushed, but with being stuck here, the only way for him to teach someone would be his fighting style instead of someone with his actual power, but this was a fine second. Teaching her was actually good for them both, one should always remember to train the basics even if their skills are beyond that, it helps teach discipline and keeps one always focused, Arya was a bit young and as such got distracted, but she was learning faster than when he first learned.

A door opening reminded him where he was, today was the day of the tournament and he was waiting on the balcony railings with Stark standing just next to him, they were waiting for the tournament to end, "my lord, her grace the queen," Jory said as the queen entered the room.

The queen strutted into the room as Stark also went back inside, the queen having on her constant smirk, "you're missing your tournament," she commented standing in front of his small study table with the knife that was used to attempt to kills his son and a detailed book of houses.

"Putting my name on it doesn't make it mine," Ned commented back as he leaned on his chair, Hiei was only looking through his eyes thanks to his Jagan, but he could still tell that Stark hated the woman in front of him, so he asked, "what are you doing here," he didn't want to play a game.

"I might ask the same of you," Cersei said as she stepped closer to the table, almost sounding threatening a bit, she was obviously distrusting of people she didn't really know and wanted some insight to him "what is it you hope to accomplish," she obviously didn't understand honor though.

"The king called on me to serve him and the realm, and that's what I'll do until he tells me otherwise," Ned told her, and Hiei switched minds to see though, it was clear that she had difficulty processing that, why would one man come down here just because of that.

"You can't change him, you can't help him, he'll do what he wants, which is all he's ever done, you'll try your best to pick up the pieces," she told him, she truly had no idea what honor was, growing up in such a rich family that was just clawing and scratching for power hindered her. He nodded and she thought that is when she understood, "you're just a soldier aren't you, you take your orders and you carry on, but I suppose it makes sense, your older brother was trained to lead and you were trained to follow," she told him and almost sounded sad.

"I was also trained to kill my enemies, Your Grace," Ned told her plainly as she smiled and barely whispered that she was as well, Hiei thought it was almost impressive, she was willing to kill, but she was willing to have other men kill for her, unlike Stark who was willing to do the killing.

She walked out of the room after that leaving Ned to think on his own as Hiei walked back into the room, "I never liked that woman, and I like her even less now that I've gotten to know her a bit more," the demon stated with his hands in his pockets before leaving as well.

* * *

The next day

Hiei followed Stark into the tent where a Ser Hugh lay dead from yesterday's ride in the tournament, "does Ser Hugh have any family in the capital," Ned asked as he entered the tent, the man had a hole in his neck where he had been pierced by a splinter of wood from a lance.

"No, I stood vigil for him myself last night," said Ser Barristan Selmy, a knight that had fought with the mad king in defense of the Targaryens, he was said to be the most skilled warrior the capital had at the moment, "he had no one else," he said in regret to the young man dead.

Hiei looked to the armor he wore and saw inspected it, "he's never worn this armor before," he said before looking to Ser Barristan, "who in their right mind would enter into a tournament with armor that isn't even broken in properly, and who was he against that would lead to thig end?"

"It was bad luck for him, he went up against the mountain from a draw of straws," Ser Barristan said to the smaller man before looking back to the boy, it wasn't hard to figure out that someone wanted the boy dead because he knew something that he shouldn't.

Stark walked out with Ser Barristan following after him, Hiei stayed staring at the body for a few more moments before walking out and walking over to the pair that had walked off, walked up just as he heard Ser Barristan say, "I hear the king wants to joust today," informing the hand.

"That'll never happen, Robert may tend to do what he wants but if the king got what he wanted all the time, he'd still be fighting a damned rebellion," Stark said as Hiei walked up to his right side, "what do you think, has any of your akuma skills picked up anything wrong with this?"

Ser Barristan rose an eyebrow at what that could mean, "other than the only witness being killed by the mountain being able to be simply cast off as bad luck and the only other lead is only what could be lied about," Hiei asked back with a side glance, "everything is wrong with all of it."

They walked until they got to the king's tent and saw Lancel Lannister, the king's personal squire try and fail to get his armor on him to fight in the joust, "it's made too small, your grace, it won't go," he told the king as he tried some more to fit the armor around him, but it was too small.

Robert looked to the young Lannister squire and said, "your mother was a dumb whore with a fat ass, did you know that," he asked before the Lancel took off the armor from the king, "look at this idiot, one ball and no brains, he can't even put a man's armor on him properly!"

Ned stared with a smile on his face for a bit before he looked to Hiei, who looked away because this was beneath him, so Stark was the one to say, "you're too fat for your armor," Lancel looked like he didn't know what to do, the lord hand had just called the king fat, what's going to happen.

"Fat, fat is it, is that how you speak to your king," Robert asked and Ned just inclined his head a bit, and after a second the king began to laugh, and then he saw Lancel smile as well, so he stopped, "that was funny, is it," he asked the boy who shook his hand frantically to say no. "No, you don't like the hand's joke," the boy was very confused now, looked ready to explode, "you heard the hand, the king's too fat for his armor, go find the breastplate stretcher, now," Lancel ran off as fast as he could, "how long before he figures it out," he asked the other two.

"Maybe you should have one invented," Ned asked his old friend, knowing that was the only way that he was ever going to get back into a breastplate, either that or have one made that better suited his overly fat physic, what was it with this king and running his kingdom into the ground.

"All right, all right, but you watch me out there, I still know how to point a lance," the king told him before drinking on his wine, Stark just shook his head, "why, because I'm king, piss on that, I want to hit somebody," his loud and boisterous voice demanded to his hand.

"And who's going to hit you back, nobody that's who, the last man in his saddle will be you, there's not a man in the seven kingdoms would risk hurting you," Ned told his old friend before they heard a cough by the door, they turned to see the fire demon, "except him, he's willing."

"Are you telling me those other cowards would let me win though," Robert asked and the other two nodded, the king poured some wine for his friend and gave it to him, he was going to refuse so the king said, "drink, your king commands it," Ned took the glass and decided to drink as ordered. Robert went and set on his chair, "gods, too fat for my armor, and the only person with the balls to actually fight me is someone that I wouldn't trust to fight me," he motioned to Hiei who was standing listening in as if this was beneath him, "you at least going to fight today boy?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes a bit at the king as Stark turned back to look at him and back to where the Lannister boy ran off, "your squire," Ned said to get his friend's attention, "a Lannister boy," he asked as if uncertain that was a good idea, though Hiei did have to agree, it was not a good idea.

"Mm, a bloody idiot, but Cersei insisted, I have Jon Arryn to thank for her, 'Cersei Lannister will make a good match' he told me, 'you'll need her father on your side', I thought being king meant I could do whatever I wanted," Robert admitted with a soft shake of his head. "Enough of this," he said as he stood up and set his drink down, "let's go watch 'em ride," then he made to leave, "at least I can smell someone else's blood," but the demon blocked his path and motioned down to his shirt, "oh," he laughed, "an inspiring sight for the people, eh," Hiei just walked off.

* * *

Five days later

Stark had been summoned to the small council chambers, he sent a message to Hiei to meet him there, sent through way of thinking out to him was still strange to the aging hand, but he was quickly grasping the concept of it, though he was still hesitant because it involved 'magic'. Though usually he wouldn't ask Hiei to go to a small council meeting again after the first time, he wanted as little contact with Pycelle and Baelish as possible, but this council meeting was special, the king was coming this time and bringing news with him about Daenerys Targaryen.

"The whore is pregnant," was the first words Robert spoke to them when they entered the room, "I warned you this would happen, back in the North I warned you, but you didn't care to hear, well hear it now, I want 'em dead, mother and child both, and that fool Viserys as well."

"You will dishonor yourself forever if you do this," Ned told his friend, killing a child is not right in the eyes of Eddard Stark, nor was it right in Hiei's eyes as well, though for different reasons other than honor, a child should not have to pay for the crimes of his ancestors, it wasn't right.

"Honor," King Robert roared, "I've got seven kingdoms to rule, one king, seven kingdoms, do you think honor keeps them in line, do you think it's honor that's keeping the peace, it's fear and blood," the king was starting to sound the way Hiei liked, but not in this way, not this way.

"Then we're no better than the mad king," Stark argued right back to him, he knew that Robert was mad with anger at all Targaryens but to go so far as to kill a child halfway around the world was just beyond madness, "you want to assassinate a girl because the spider heard a rumor?"

"No rumor, my lord, the princess is with child," Varys said, though he sounded a little upset at the implication that his spy network was not that god, "based on the information from Ser Jorah Mormont, he is serving as advisor to the Targaryens," he told hoping he'd remember the name.

"Mormont," Ned questioned, he remembered the name plainly from what that man did, "you bring us the whispers of a traitor half a world away and call it fact," this one was more of a mocking comment to see if he could make the king have doubts about the fact, at least hold off killing.

"Jorah Mormont's a slaver, not a traitor," Baelish spoke up in a bit of mocking fashion as well, this time though, "small difference, I know, to an honorable man," he hit his honor, what a day and age these people live in, maybe now would be a good time to speak up and tell them something.

"He broke the law, betrayed his family, fled the land, that is what many would call being a traitor, not that you know that means as a flesh peddler," Hiei stated and received a small glare from Baelish, "why would you commit murder of a yet born child on a man such as that?"

"And if he's right," Robert turned his attention to the two of them now instead of just Stark, "if she has a son, a Targaryen at the head of a Dothraki army," that seemed to be quite the terrible thing to imagine to everyone else here, but not so for him or lord Stark, "what then?"

"The Narrow Sea still lies between us," Ned pointed out, it seemed impossible to cross for them, not only seemed impossible it was impossible for them to cross, "I'll fear the Dothraki," he admitted, "the day they teach their horses to run on water," and with an impossible feat.

"Do nothing, that's your wise advice, do nothing till our enemies are on our shores," Robert boomed before looking to his council, "you're my council, counsel, speak sense to these honorable fools," okay that is one line you do not cross with Hiei, calling him a fool.

Varys was the first one to speak up, "I understand your… misgivings, my lords, truly I do, it is a terrible thing we must consider, a vile thing, yet we who presume to rule must sometimes do vile things for the good of the realm, should the gods grant her a son, the realm will bleed."

Pycelle was next in the attempt, "I bear this girl no ill will," the old man at least admitted that, "but should the Dothraki invade, how many innocents will die," he asked them, "how many towns will burn, is it not wiser, kinder even, that she should die now so that tens of thousands might live?"

Ned looked at his friend Robert before walking towards him, "I followed you into a war twice," he put his hands on the table, "without doubts, without second thoughts, but I will not follow you now, the Robert I grew up with didn't tremble at the shadow of an unborn child."

"She dies," Robert said lowly, Stark shook his head, "you're the king's hand Lord Stark, you'll do as I command or I'll find me a hand who will," oh now that was one thing he shouldn't have said, because the next thing that Stark did was take off his hand pendant and place it down before leaving. "Out, out damn you, I'm done with you," he roared while both the Stark and the fire demon left, "go run back to Winterfell, I'll have your heads on a spike, I'll put them there myself you fools, you think you're too good for this, too proud and honorable, this is a war," his voice faded.

"I'll go get the girls and have the men get them ready," Stark told the fire demon as they were making their way to the tower of the hand, they were almost there when they met up with Jory, Stark was just about to enter his chambers when he turned to Hiei, "what about you?"

"I have some business to take care of, you get the girls ready while I go and take care of it," Hiei stated before leaving the room, he was gong to do nothing really, but in truth he was just going to the top of the Red Keep, he stared out into the distance, scouting the path ahead of them.

A little over an hour later he noticed something with the energies of Stark and his guard Jory, energies with foul intent were marching to their position, so he speed to their position just in time to see Jaime approach, "stay back Ser, this is the Hand of the King," Jory told the kingslayer.

"Was the Hand of the King, now I'm not sure what he is, lord of somewhere very far away," Jaime said as Baelish came out of his brothel, "get back inside where it's safe, I'm looking for my brother, you remember my brother, don't you Lord Stark, blond hair, sharp tongue, short man."

'Lannister,' Hiei thought out to Jaime, he almost jumped from the voice of the demon in his head, 'Baelish framed Tyrion into sending an assassin to attack her son Bran, Catelyn acted on her own, this is a misunderstanding that the honor of Stark won't allow to not back his wife, he ordered nothing.'

"It seems he had some trouble on the road, you wouldn't know what happened to him, would you," Jaime asked Stark in the open while silently thinking to the demon, 'what would you have me do, this involves the honor of House Lannister now, it will not end well regardless of ignorance.'

"He was taken at my command to answer for his crimes," Ned Stark stated while keeping his composure, who knew that he could lie like that, nobody in the Lannister army did so there was no way anyone could think that it was possible that he was covering for his wife.

With this in mind Jaime drew his weapon just as the rest pointed their spears at the group of Stark men, "my lords," Baelish stated to say as everyone got ready for a fight, "I'll bring the city watch," he went back inside and when he was out of earshot, Hiei stepped from the corner of the brothel.

"I hear that this is all a plot by him," Jaime said quietly to the man who just entered the brothel, Ned stiffly nodded once to confirm, Jaime turned to his men, "none of you are to interfere, I will face Stark myself, none are to attack," he ordered then quietly to Stark, "make it a good show."

Stark understood, to make this match believable, he needed to take on Jaime so that Baelish didn't get suspicious, so he drew his sword while Jaime leveled his blade at him, Stark knocked the blade to the right before swinging diagonally that was blocked by Jaime who then lunged. Stark dodged out of the way before attacking with a downward slash that was blocked once more by the kingslayer, he forced both swords to the side before making for a side swipe that was parried, Stark went for a sideswipe that was blocked while they spun around each other. They met swords below and then again at the top, this time Stark used that opportunity to try and stab through Jaime's defenses, but he leaned back and sidestepped it, Jaime leveled his blade out while Stark had his stance in a slightly hunched over position before they continued. Jaime tried for a faint to attacking Stark's right before making to attack his left, but it was seen through and blocked before they met swords below again, Ned did an overhead slash which was blocked before Jaime did a sideswipe that was blocked by Ned so he tried the other side with same result. Ned stabbed at Jaime's head that was leaned away from, then came a swipe to cleave the kingslayer's head from his shoulder that was ducked under, another overhead slash parried and Jaime swung at Stark only barely missing him before trying for another swipe, this was blocked. Stark went in low to strike at both the left then the right legs of Jaime, both were parried before switching to an upward slash then an overhead slash, they locked swords for a moment before they backed from one another and stood there panting, they almost seemed equally matched.

That was why one Lannister soldier came from behind Stark and stabbed him in the leg and made him fall to his knees, Jaime was furious, he told his men not to attack and he was just getting started, so Jaime went up to him and hit him hard with the hilt of the sword he held in his grasp. The man fell out cold, Jaime leaned in to whisper to Stark, "that was not planned," before sheathing his blade and allowed Stark's men to run to him, Lannister went to a horse that one of his soldiers brought him while one could see Baelish standing just outside view of others to watch. Jaime mounted his horse while Ned looked up to Jaime in mock anger, but the real anger was directed at Baelish, "my brother Lord Stark, we want him back," he rode off with a discreet nod to the demon and Stark's men took him to the Red Keep to be healed before they depart.


	5. End of an Era

Game of Demons

Chapter 5

End of an Era

Hiei watched over the injured Ned as he slept, it wasn't really that he really needed a guard to be honest, nobody was going to be foolish enough to attack the former hand right now anyways, but it was better safe than sorry, especially with so many fools being foolish right now, of all times. Stark's men were posted outside his door, Jory was ordered to stand there and only let someone as high up as the king or queen enter, Hiei personally ordered this, the man obeyed without question, apparently the fire demon was given the command of his men in this scenario. He also ordered the girls to be confined to their rooms until their father awoke, only Hiei or Ned could lift this, the king and queen were able to enter but nobody else, this was only a precaution of course, Hiei had his own senses ready and trained for anything that might come up as well. It was only the next day when Stark was showing signs of waking did the king and queen finally come to see him, and they entered in the most annoying way possible, with the king stomping up to the room before roaring at the guards to get out of the way, they did and let them pass.

When they stepped inside they saw Hiei sitting on the windowsill as if nothing was wrong, watching out the window with a scowl as if that was where an assassin would be coming from, "has he woken up yet," Robert asked the fire demon first, didn't even say hello, how rude.

"No," Hiei said as he stepped down from the windowsill and walked over to the door while pulling something from his pocket, the king and queen watched in curiosity as the fire demon put a piece of paper on the door, it glowed for a moment before it stopped, now they were finally alone.

Robert would have asked what that was while Cersei scowled at it, each wondering what the paper was, but then Ned stirred in his sleep and began to awake, as his eyes opened so too did his senses, "your pardon your grace, I would rise but," he said and mentioned his leg.

Cersei decided to speak up and get everything out of the way, but was intercepted by Hiei, "what I placed on the door is known as a talisman, something only I know how to make, it keeps the walls silent of all noise, nothing we say can leave this place, so let us have a private discussion."

The way he said it made all three of them gulp, normally Robert would not hesitate like this, but his discussions with Ned have given him some insight on what the fire demon might be able to do, and why he didn't participate in that tourney was do too lack of skill of the others, not his own. Cersei could hear the threat and underlining tone in his voice, remembering that day back in Winterfell with Jaime and him where he choked her and threatened her in the open, she's still yet to find out how he did that trick with the fire, and she's had the pyromancers searching day and night. Ned for his part recognized the tone as something where business was to be discussed, unpleasant business that the former Hand of the King didn't want to go over right now, but that tone left no room for him to argue against and right now he was too tired to argue with him now.

"You don't care what happens to this kingdom after you're dead, not who rules, not the wars after, and not the lives that it will cost," Hiei stated that fact to the king, who looked at him with shock, that was a private thought that he's had for the past nineteen years, since Lyanna's death.

"What," Stark exclaimed to his old friend, "I've been trying to find proof that Baelish orchestrated the poisoning of Jon Arryn, trying to find a way to get justice for his murder while you've been whoring and drinking this crown into the ground for the future generations of the realm!"

"Careful Ned," Robert warned his friend, he was getting dangerously close to anger now, "yes, the rest of the realm can burn for all I care, this rats nest of a capital has sucked almost everything from me, the madness of the Targaryens and that throne to the kingdoms needs to be destroyed."

Cersei thought now would be the best time to ask the lord Stark something while him and her husband glared at each other from across the room, "do you know what your wife has done," the tone in her voice was a sneer, she never liked the imp but this was a mark on their house.

"That is a complication, she secretly received a letter from her sister, who was the one to poison the former hand, in that letter she accused the Lannisters, thinking that Tyrion was a part of it she captured the imp and put him in chains, all to start a war," Hiei told them seriously.

Cersei scowled at nothing to the side while Robert was still in shock that this little fire demon scrounged up all that information, then he turned to Ned, "ya see, this is what I'm talking about, nothing but lies and schemes, now do you see why I'd rather watch this place burn to a crisp?"

"I don't care if it was orchestrated by Baelish, by what right dare your wife lay hands on my blood, you should now be held accountable for the folly of Catelyn Stark," Cersei demanded, this was just going to get more troublesome before it was going to get better, a lot more troublesome.

"Well you better start caring, Catelyn will release Tyrion and you'll make your peace with Jaime," Robert ordered and for the second time in his life Ned gave his friend a defiant look as if to ask, 'after what you just said you're giving orders', "I'm still the king and still alive, my word is law."

"About the business with Jaime," Hiei spoke up as he walked to the right side of Starks bed and stood there, "he told his soldiers not to interfere, one didn't follow that order and chose instead to stab Stark in the leg, before Jaime left he told Stark that it wasn't planned, and it wasn't."

"So to save face Jaime has fled the city in some plan of yours," Cersei asked and he shook his head, she must have took that as her que to make a plan up, or at least a story, "Lord Stark was returning drunk from a brothel when his men attacked Jaime, Lord Stark himself got wounded."

"That wasn't an invite for you to make your own story, wouldn't work because nobody would believe that Stark would be in a brothel other than in an investigation, he had to make it seem like he was investigating what Jon Arryn was in order to see if Baelish would slip up instead. Rumors and stories are fine but at least make them believable," Hiei stated to the queen and she scowled at him in turn, "and it wasn't part of my plan for your brother to flee the city, he must have expected he would have been targeted by the other Stark men if he stayed after that."

"The public would want to see him, the honorable Ned Stark to make a move now, won't they," Robert asked and Hiei nodded, that was the likely scenario, "fine, we'll say that you asked my leave to ride out to capture him to bring him back to justice but I denied that request, for this." Robert tossed him the Hand to the King pendant and Ned looked at it in shock, "put on the damn pendant and if you take it off again I swear I'll pin the damn thing on Jaime Lannister, you'll send a raven ordering you wife to let Tyrion go, you're wife has had her fun now it ends here and now. You and Jaime will make peace when he returns from wherever he is, I can't rule the kingdoms if the Starks and the Lannisters are at each other's throats, I don't care if it was orchestrated at this point, do I make myself clear to you Ned, this is an order from the king, so you will follow it."

Ned couldn't really do much in this situation, it became too complicated too fast, so for now it was better to just do as he was commanded and then return to his home when Robert finally drank and whored himself too much, "as you command your grace," he said begrudgingly, but still said.

"Good, we'll talk when I return from the hunt," Robert said to both Hiei and Ned, why he wanted to talk with Hiei though the fire demon had no idea, Cersei rolled her eyes in disgust at Robert going off hunting again, "killing things clears my head, and right now my head needs to be cleared."

He walked out after that, leaving the queen to hang back and give one last sneer at them both before leaving as well, "that is the absolute most unpleasant woman I've ever met," Hiei stated absently before walking to the window before looking back, "do the smart thing," and jumped out.

* * *

A few days later

After that Stark began to heal quite well, especially after the rather hate fueled argument that happened to leave a bad taste in his mouth, Hiei on the other hand decided that it was time to up Arya's training, so when she came to practice the next day he began it by tossing her the sword. That was abnormal in of itself, he didn't toss her the wooden sword since their first day, this obviously registered in her mind so she acted quickly when he went to strike her afterwards, she was able to block the strikes that followed as well, they were quick strikes so not powerful. During their training sessions, they discussed a few things, one such thing was to not be distracted with other things, not to think on what might be, only focus on what is and taught her how to do so no matter what the situation, she has taken all of his teachings to heart in this form. They also discussed the gods, or what these people perceive as gods, it started when she asked what gods he prayed to, he told her his answer, "hn, there is no such thing, gods don't do anything, only people, no gods blessings will bring anything, only through your own actions."

After that came the normal activities, like right at this moment where Hiei was standing in the shadow behind the throne listening to the peasants talk to Stark, "they burned most everything in the Riverlands, our fields, granaries, our homes, they took our women, then took 'em again. Then when they was done, they butchered them, as if they was animals, they covered our children in pitch and lit them on fire," Pycelle said something about it being brigands, "they weren't thieves, they didn't steal nothing, they even left something behind, your grace," the man said.

Pycelle spoke up before the man could continue, "it's the King's Hand you're addressing, not the king, the king is hunting," the old maester seemed to take offence to Stark being mistaken for a king, he must not know what a real king looks like to sound so offended, he should die soon.

One of the men that came brought a sack and dumped it, it was full of fish, "fish," Baelish stated as he was too Stark's right, taking down notes, "the sigil of House Tully," then leaned in to whisper to Stark, "isn't that your wife's house, Tully, my Lord Hand," Baelish asked him.

Ned wanted to strangle the men sitting beside him, he truly did, but he spoke to the man that brought him this message, "these men, were they flying a sigil," he asked and got a look of confusion, right, smallfolk don't know what sigil means, "a banner," that got a recognized look.

"None your… Hand, the one who was leading them… taller by a foot than any man I've ever met, saw him cut the blacksmith in two, saw him take the head off a horse with a single swing of his sword," the description of the man was familiar to everyone in the room.

Baelish turned to Stark, "that sounds like someone we know, The Mountain," way to state the obvious to everyone, "I've heard him called Tywin Lannister's Mad Dog, I'm sure you have as well," that was directed to Pycelle, "can you think of any reason the Lannisters might be angry. If the Lannisters were to order attacks on villages under the king's protection, it would be almost as brazen as attacking the Hand of the King in the streets of the capital," this is where one of his many plans were being put into motion, he knew what the honor of Stark would demand.

Ned resigned himself for it, "I cannot give you back your homes or restore the dead to life, but perhaps I can give you justice in the name of our king, Robert, Lord Beric Dondarrion," he called and the lord came forth, "you shall have the command, assemble 100 men and rid to Ser Gregor's keep." The man nodded, Stark stood from the iron throne, "in the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, I charge you to bring the king's justice to the false knight Gregor Clegane. All those who shared in his crimes as well, I denounce him and attaint him, I strip him of all ranks and titles, of all lands and holdings, and sentence him to death, Grand Maester Pycelle, send a raven to Casterly Rock, inform Tywin Lannister that he has been summoned to court. He will answer for the crimes of his bannermen, he will arrive within a fortnight or be branded an enemy of the crown and a traitor to the realm," Stark began to leave the room after he said that, began to walk shakily out of the throne room while Hiei followed him from behind.

Baelish hurriedly got out of his seat to follow, "a bold move, my lord, and admirable, but is it wise to yank the lion's tail, Tywin Lannister is the richest man in all the Seven Kingdoms," Ned ignored him though and kept walking, so he raised his voice, "gold wins wars, not soldiers."

That is where Stark decided to reply, but did so without looking back as a show that he had gotten in the last word, "then how come Robert is king and not Tywin Lannister," which wasn't really the best example given circumstances, but at least he got in the last word for now.

* * *

That night

Stark gathered Arya and Sansa in his room to give them some news, Hiei was to be there as well for the announcement, the girls were sitting on the bed beside one another looking up at him as Hiei stood off to the side, "I'm sending you both back to Winterfell," he told the girls.

"What, what about Joffrey," Sansa frantically asked, Arya didn't say anything, she learned from Hiei that silence until everything was said was better, "please, father, please don't, I can't go I'm supposed to marry Prince Joffrey, I love him and I'm meant to be his queen and have his babies."

Ned didn't like that any better than Hiei did, they both knew that she would be abused and raped by that man if he stayed here, "when you're old enough, I'll make you a match with someone who's worthy of you, someone who's brave and gentle and strong," he offered a better deal.

"I don't want someone brave and gentle and strong, I want him," this isn't good, she's already showing the signs, "he'll be the greatest king that ever was, a golden lion, and I'll give him sons with beautiful blonde hair," that is when it began to clique for Ned, something that Hiei kept from him.

Arya finally did make it a point to speak up now, "I think it's worth mentioning that the lion's not really his sigil, he's a Stag, just like his father, though not as fat, lazy or drunk," she commented to her sister, though since she didn't know the truth it was easy to miss the false in her statement.

"He is not, he's nothing like that old drunk king," Sansa commented back before noticing something, "and why aren't you protesting this, shouldn't you be protesting it because you'll be missing your dancing lessons," she asked Arya as a way to gang up on a two on one decision.

"No, my master has taught me the patience required, he eventually beat me black and blue to teach me to think calmly and wait to speak, not be so impulsive, I can always practice on my own till I see him again regardless," she told her sister as calmly and dignified as she wasn't acting.

"Go on girls, get your septa and start packing your things," Stark told his girls and Arya got up first, dragging a protesting Sansa out as the lord hobbled to his desk to sit down and look at a book that he acquired while pretending to search for the former hand's killer, a very thick book. He picked up the knife that was used to attack his son before bringing the book before him and opening it, he stopped on a certain section, "Lord Orys Baratheon, black of hair" went down the page, "Axel Baratheon, black of hair," the next column, "Lyonel Baratheon, black of hair." He went down that column, "Steffon Baratheon, black of hair," he turned the page to the next name, "Robert Baratheon, black of hair," he went to the next column, "Joffrey Baratheon… golden-haired," now he understood, he looked up in shock to Hiei, "you lied to me."

Hiei sighed to himself despite the situation, "I didn't lie, Baelish is the one to orchestrate the death of Jon Arryn and sent an assassin to your boy," Ned's face was growing angry now, "I left out the fact that he used true facts and details to make it seems like the Lannister's acted though."

"So instead of telling me the truth in Joffrey not being the heir you decided that instead let me go off in believing the king had a true heir instead of the only heir being Stannis Baratheon instead," Stark demanded and Hiei had to keep himself from burning him in thinking he was his boss.

Instead he speed to him and stood in front of his desk and looked him straight in the eye, "do not presume to know me or that you are able to order me around in any way, I didn't tell you the truth because you did not need to know it, because it did not matter, not by your own laws either." By the confused look on the old lord he had to explain, "once Cersei married Robert her power as queen was solidified, any child she produced would be a royal heir, by Robert or her brother, weather the prince is named Lannister or Baratheon makes no difference in this situation at all. He has been given the name of Baratheon, by all legal rights, should the truth be discovered and a rebellion happen, a new king can denounce him give him a bastard name, but he is essentially a legitimized bastard without anyone even knowing it, a queen born bastard though."

Now Stark understood what he was saying, "Robert publicly announced that Joffrey was his heir when he was born, calling him Joffrey Baratheon, and now we know it doesn't matter to Robert what happens when he dies, so as far as the line of succession, Joffrey has been legitimized."

"Yes, Joffrey is a bastard that has been legitimized, rather or not anyone else realizes it matters as little as Robert cares for the realm, the only question now Stark is if you tell anyone this fact that would lead to a war for the line of succession, or say nothing about it," Hiei said before leaving. Ned had a lot to think about, hopefully this little play on who is in line will make it so there is less of a headache than if there actually was a war, while he would have liked to begin killing again, he knew that if he didn't choose carefully, the side he chose in the war would give him trouble.

* * *

A few more days later

It was official, Ned Stark was a huge fucking moron, his noble honor was going to get him killed, instead of doing the smart thing and waiting until Robert returns from the hunt to ask him if he knew or if he cared, Stark confronted the queen with the truth and told her he was telling Robert. Cersei of course, didn't take kindly to that and essentially threatened him, yet he paid it no mind and is planning to tell Robert today, a lot of good that would do him, if the fat oaf didn't care about the kingdom before, telling him something like Joffrey being a bastard was certainly trivial.

"Ned," they heard a shout as they were walking down a hallway, only to look back and see Renly approaching them covered in blood, "it's Robert, we were hunting and a boar," he couldn't say anymore and turned, the other following after him to where the king was currently laying down.

They stepped into the room, only Hiei, Stark, and Renly were allowed to go inside, they spotted the king laying in bed, Joffrey was sitting on the bed beside him, "go on, you don't want to see this," the king told his son, Joffrey stood up and left looking quite down, very down actually. Once he was gone, the king gave a soft chuckle, "my fault, too much wine, missed my thrust," he told them as Ned moved to peel back the bed covers and get a look at the bandaged wound, "it stinks, it stinks like death, don't think I can't smell it," he gave a small laugh again. "I paid the bastard back, Ned, I drove my knife right through his brain, you ask them if I didn't, ask them," he told his friend, the others didn't look so sure though, "I want the funeral feast to be the biggest the kingdoms ever saw and I want everyone to taste the boar that got me." That was a truly a sad thing to say, what in the hell made him think that it was a funny thing to make people taste what has killed you, "now leave us, the lot of you, I need to talk to Ned," Cersei made to protest that, but Robert yelled out, "out, all of you," and everyone complied.

Hiei decided not to be in there for the conversation that was to take place, so he left as well and stood outside along with everyone else, he was actually listening in on them still though, heard everything, and then after a few minutes of listening in, Stark then came out on his cane. He stood before them and told the Grand Maester, "give him milk of the poppy," Pycelle somberly went in, followed closely behind by Renly, the door closed with a loud thud, Stark stayed silent and let someone else speak first, hopefully to drown out silence with something.

"He was reeling from the wine," Ser Barristan was the first to break the silence, obviously Ned must be thankful for the information, "he commanded us to step aside, but… I failed him," though the regret in his voice didn't sound to be large, there was some regret of course, but not much.

Stark looked to Ser Barristan before looking down in front of him, "no man could have protected him from himself," Ned told the old knight, though his time with Hiei made him have a thought, "I assume it was the Lannister boy that gave him this wine though, from the king's own skin."

Ser Barristan nodded to the assumption, Varys spoke up after that, "such a dutiful boy to make sure his grace did not lack refreshment," he said softly to plant a seed, "I do hope the poor lad does not blame himself," he could see the gears in their minds turning at his words.

Stark knew that now was not the time to be discussing it though, so he instead began to walk as he said, "his grace has had a change of heart concerning Daenerys Targaryen, whatever arrangements you made," he stopped to look at Varys directly for this order, "unmake them at once."

Varys though could only give the Hand of the King bad news on that front, "I'm afraid those birds have flown, the girl is likely dead already," the news was not preferable, and so Stark left with a somber scowl on his face, though Hiei doubted if those birds couldn't be halted in some way.

So Hiei quietly walked up to beside Varys and whispered, "send your birds with different news then, tell them that if they fail, tell them of what happened, do that and I'll finally interfere with everything and see if I can't spare the life of the honorable fool," he told the spider quietly.

It was only later that day when they were passing an area that they were stopped by Lord Renly, "Lord Stark, a moment," he said as he approached the small company of four, "alone if you will," he looked to the guards and Hiei, Stark looked back to his guards and nodded, Hiei didn't move. So after a brief stare down that ended with Hiei winning, Renly spoke, "he named you Protector of the Realm," he noticed, "she won't care, give me an hour and I can put a hundred swords at your command, you can strike tonight while the castle sleeps, get Joffrey away from his mother. Our custody is much safer, Protector of the Realm or no, he who holds the king holds the kingdom, and every moment you delay gives Cersei another moment to prepare and by the time Robert dies, it will be too late for both of us," Renly told Ned, and it was sound advice.

Ned considered it for a moment before asking, "what about Stannis," ah yes, what about him, from what Hiei has been able to learn he is a fire god worshiper now, a hard man who doesn't believe in any leeway and holds no room for anything akin to something like mercy.

Renly scoffed, "saving the Seven Kingdoms from Cersei and delivering them to Stannis, you have odd notions about protecting the realm, and this isn't about the bloody line of succession, that didn't matter when you rebelled against the Mad King, it shouldn't matter now." His line of reasoning is flawed, but the end point still stands, "what's best of the kingdoms, what's best for the people we rule, we all know what Stannis is, he inspires no love or loyalty, he's not a king," and this brings up a red flag, a large red flag for Hiei, "I am."

Stark looked at him shocked, blatant shock from the audacity that the younger man showed, "Stannis is a commander, he's led men into war twice, he destroyed the Greyjoy fleet," now it almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that, his confidence is waning.

"Yes, he's a good soldier, everyone knows that, so was Robert," Renly interrupted before something else could be said about Stannis's accomplishments, "tell me something, do you still believe good soldiers make good kings," that is one point of fact that nobody could dispute.

"It should be worth mentioning that Robert is not the rule of the scenario, in truth he is too burdened by the death of his former betrothed and has refused to move past it, a good soldier could be a good king if that simple fact was stricken from the equation," Hiei pointed out.

Stark knew it too, there is no way that he could dispute that fact, so instead, "I will not dishonor Robert's last hours by shedding blood in his halls and dragging frightened children from their beds," he walked past him before much else could be said and went to his chambers to think.

Hiei followed after him to his chambers where he began to write a letter, and when Hiei calmly walked around the desk to look over his shoulder, he could see that it was in fact a letter to Stannis, telling him of the line of succession, "I thought we had already discussed this earlier."

"We did, you played your word games quite well," Ned commented while he wrote the letter and refused to look up, "Baelish sent an assassin after my boy for seeing the queen and her brother together, I'll give you that, but the line of succession is clear, Stannis is the true heir in this matter." Hiei would have groaned if he didn't have a good handle on his emotions, what is it with this humans and having honor that would lead a war instead of saving his men with peace, "call in a guardsmen," he said offhandedly and Hiei knocked on the door twice and one was brought in. Stark had just finished the letter, "you will sail to Dragonstone tonight," he told the man, "you will place this in the hand of Stannis Baratheon, not his steward, not his captain of the guard, and not his wife," he told them man after sealing the letter with wax and the seal of House Stark, "only Stannis."

The man nodded and Stark motioned for him to leave and the man did so, just as Baelish was let into the room, Hiei's order to only let the king or queen in lifted since he could safely defend himself again, Baelish walked up and bowed, "My Lord Protector," before raising gently.

Stark looked at him skeptically and wondered how he knew of that before sitting back in his seat, "the king has no trueborn sons, Joffrey and Tommen are Jaime Lannister's bastards, and so when the king dies the throne passes to his brother Lord Stannis," he told the man to gauge his reaction.

Of course he already knew that Baelish knew, and by the look on him it was true, "so it would seem," he walked around the desk and moved to the balcony door, casting a curious glance at Hiei, "unless," Stark was going to say something, but Hiei, who was within his sights, shook his head. "Oh, I know, your honor says that there is no unless, he is the rightful heir, but he cannot take the throne without your help, you would be wise to deny it to him and to make sure Joffrey succeeds, you are now Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm, all the power is yours, you need only reach out and take it. Make peace with the Lannisters, release the imp, Wed your daughter to Joffrey, we have plenty of time to get rid of Stannis and if Joffrey seems likely to cause problems when he comes into his throne, we simply reveal his little secret and seat Lord Renly there instead." Stark looked back to him with a curious glance, "you'll need someone to share these burdens, I assure you, my price would be modest," he walked back to standing in front of Stark's desk, "and it's only treason if we lose," Hiei had to admit, Baelish did have a way with words.

Stark though, he only thought about how Baelish was manipulating him, so he thought to manipulate Baelish some, he reached over and took the knife brought to him by Catelyn, "make peace with the Lannisters, you say… with the people who tried to murder my boy," he put the knife down. "No, I won't do it, I would rather have Stannis and war than dishonor myself with treason, there is no other choice in this matter, but since you promised Catelyn you would help me, the queen has a dozen knights and a hundred men-at-arms, enough to overwhelm what remains of my household guard."

"So you need the gold cloaks, the City Watch is 2,000 strong and sworn to defend the king's peace," Baelish guessed with a smirk, he could clearly see where this is going, "look at you, you know what you want me to do," he set down in a chair looking so very smug about the situation. "You know it has to be done, but it's not honorable so the words stick in your throat," he reached over and began to turn the dagger, "when the queen proclaims one king and the hand proclaims another, whose peace do the gold cloaks protect, who do they follow," he stopped the dagger. The answer to the question was obvious, "the man who pays them," the dagger was pointing to him and he had such a smug grin on his face that he might actually be a long lost cousin to the Lannisters, but they knew he wasn't as clever as what he thought, and now Hiei knew Stark was.

* * *

The next day

After everything was sure to have been set up, they were walking down a hallway when they were called, "lord stark," a caller called them and guards got in the way before Ned told them it was alright, "Lord Stark, King Joffrey and the queen regent request your presence in the throne room."

"King Robert is dead then," Ned sounded sad when the caller nodded, "the Gods give him rest," he steeled himself for what was about to happen, so he walked to the courtyard of the Red Keep where all his household guard were waiting for him, standing around waiting for the command.

Baelish and Varys also came up to him, Hiei to his right and looking as disinterested as always, "all is accomplished, the City Watch is yours," Baelish told Stark, of course it went without saying between Hiei and Stark that they knew his own plan had also been put into their orders as well.

"Good," Stark told them, he would have asked about Renly, but his time with Hiei had told him that Renly was now a lost cause, thinking he should be king was what Hiei had called a 'red flag', apparently meaning that Renly shouldn't be involved with this, he would only get in the way.

Stark nodded and began walking along with Hiei to the front gates of the throne room where they were being waited for by the gold cloaks, and with a mind probe it was signaled with a nod that the hand's plan was working so far, "we stand behind you, Lord Stark," the lord commander said.

Lord Stark nodded and walked into the throne room when the double doors were opened in stood the king, his mother to his right, the hound to his left, five kingsguard at the bottom of the steps, and two lines of gold cloaks with spears pointed up going from the door to the pillar before the throne. "All hail his grace, Joffrey of Houses Baratheon and Lannister, the first of his name, King of the Andals and the first men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and protector of the Realm," what Hiei believed to be the court caller or something like that announced to the newly arrived people.

Joffrey tried to look menacing on the throne, "I command the council to make all necessary arrangements for my coronation, I wish to be crowned within the fortnight, today I shall accept oaths of fealty from my loyal councilors," he failed oh so miserably and only looked weak on it.

"Ser Barristan," Stark called out, "I believe no man here could ever question your honor," he pulled out a scroll and Ser Barristan walked over carefully before taking the offered scroll, Hiei knew that it would be useless but this was only one shield that would be broken, he had others.

"King Robert's seal, unbroken," Ser Barristan announced before walking back to the bottom of the throne while opening the letter, "Lord Eddard Stark is herein named Protector of the Realm, to rule as regent until the heir come of age," Joffrey looked worried, but Cersei didn't seem fazed.

"May I see that letter, Ser Barristan," Cersei said as she stood from her own chair beside her son and walked over to the edge as Ser Barristan walked up and handed her the letter, "Protector of the Realm, is this meant to be your shield, Lord Stark," she asked tearing up the letter itself. She threw the remnants to the ground and folded her hands again, "Lord Eddard, when we last spoke you offered me some counsel, allow me to return the courtesy, bend the knee my lord, Bend the knee and swear loyalty to my son, and we shall allow you to live out your days in the North."

Stark looked to the ground before looking up in her eyes, "your son has no claim to the throne," they would have all interrupted but Hiei sped to the throne and put his hand on the boy's shoulder, "he is the son of you Cersei Lannister and your brother, Ser Jaime Lannister."

Cersei looked to be about to say something before Hiei stepped in, "there are many ways this could end bitch hag," referring to Cersei, "I could slice open the necks of everyone here, kill your bastard boy, slam you onto the swords of the throne repeatedly until you're nothing but a mess. I could stab everyone here through the heart before they could blink just as I appeared here and put the back of my hand on your bastards shoulder before anyone could blink, every single action you take against the Starks will have me killing you as a counter, what is your choice?"

The throne room was still, Stark didn't like the choice but knew this was the only way, it was what honor demands, Hiei didn't care either way so it was very freeing to be able to get him to do this, he didn't like it, but knew that if honor demands that he do this, then he was going to do it. Cersei was weighing her options, on one hand Stark just outed their biggest secret to all the men here, and she could already feel the eyes of the Lannister men here itching to tell her father of the accusation, the hound already looked back as if debating what to do in the moment. The gold cloaks looked between the Starks they were to betray and the men they were sworn to obey, but if there was no true king on the throne at the moment, then by all rights then Ned Stark would be the rightful choice, he tried to do the honorable thing and told the truth at risk of himself. Ser Barristan didn't know what to do, there was no king at the moment, but the previous king has now made his last act known, Ned Stark is to rule as regent until the king's heir comes of age, but there was no heir to come of age, Stannis was the rightful heir now, and the Stark knew it.

"You think you can get away with this, I have the power," Cersei told him with venom as she looked to the commander, who gave the order to the men, but the refused to listen to him, they looked torn between doing what is right and following their orders, "I gave the order to attack!"

"You did, but their waiting you see," Hiei said calmly while slowly moving his hand from on Joffrey's shoulder and moving to stand in front of her without fear, "unlike others you can not bully me with false words of false power, can not buy my loyalty, nor can you blackmail me." The hound was thinking about sneaking up behind him, but Hiei saw this and phased out of existence before reappearing behind him and slamming him into the wall to the right of the throne like it was nothing, "I hold true power, so what is your choice, be taken into custody, or be killed."

Cersei stood in front of her son protectively as if that would stop him, the kingsguard were frozen stiff from the fear they felt from this monster that just showed inhumane amounts of strength, what could they do against him, he took out the hound as if he was a fly, there was nothing. They heard a knife being drawn and turned to who it was and saw that Baelish held Stark from behind and with a knife to his neck, "quite the interesting thing you pulled here you two, but all of you know what you've been paid for, can your families actually afford not to be fed?"

Hiei sped around the room before any could wonder what happened and knocked out all the gold cloaks with quick chops to the back of their necks, striking them through their chainmail and then reappearing back at the top of the throne r stand right in front of the queen looking at Baelish. The man didn't know what to do now, he looked around frantically and everyone had fallen, he couldn't even register what happened before his grip on Stark loosened and then he was elbowed to the face, hard, knocking him down to the ground before a boot came in and all he saw was black.


End file.
